


Bending The Universe

by WarlordOfAllHoggs



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Crossover, During Avatar: The Last Airbender, F/M, Post-Steven Universe Future, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 53,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarlordOfAllHoggs/pseuds/WarlordOfAllHoggs
Summary: After a year or so of travel, Steven finds himself in front of a Man named Roku asking for his help in saving his great grandchildren.Who knew this would end up in dimension hopping to a new world in which Steven has to try his best, not to save the world, but to save two children from themselves.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Steven Universe & Azula, Steven Universe & Everyone, Steven Universe & Roku
Comments: 188
Kudos: 211





	1. A light, The Avatar, and Steven

**Author's Note:**

> I have loved Steven Universe ever since it came out, and I have been a long time fan of Avatar.  
> a trend in April/June was Steven Universe, Gravity falls crossovers. The trend has died down a little but other Crossovers are still being made to continue on after the final episode of Steven universe.  
> I wanted to try add to this and I thought, "Why not Avatar?"  
> So here is my attempt.
> 
> I found it a shame that because of the movie that shall not be mentioned to do with avatar, that an animated movie was planned, with an Azula redemption arc, never got made.  
> So the goal of this fic, is ultimately to redeem Azula.

A structure on a distant planet was a unique piece of architecture in terms of decoration. Not the decoration in that it had extravagant design, but in the fact that the structure was minimalist. The feature this temple like building had was that it drew attention to 4 symbols.

The first of these symbols , at the top, was that it was it was simply 3 spirals in a triangular formation. The second of these , to the right, was three wavy lines with a similar but distinct 3 spirals almost forming the top of a wave. The third, at the bottom, being a trapezium like shape, a spiral for what could be mistaken for an eye, and what could be described as a pair of E’s facing backwards and forwards on the bottom. The final, to the left, was a spiral at the centre being surrounded by a caricature of what seemed to simply be fire.

It was because of this that Steven had made his way to see it. Unlike anything gem-kind built or made, on a planet that wasn’t flourishing with life, it was a sight to see. Steven, for the past year and a half, had done a lot of sightseeing in his home country; his sightseeing then went worldly, taking in the wonders of the world. This had progressed to universal sightseeing, seeing what other galaxies landmarks had to give, which ended up with him being here.

It wasn’t the first in the day he had been to. He usually, depending on the place, liked to see around three a day, two if the places were time consuming and interesting, four if the places were more of the type where it was just one thing to see and to move on. This temple was more of the latter type, after the two others he had been to today, he could have made one more, however something about this temple kept him here for longer than he would usually be at this type of place, and was still keeping him here now.

Steven had decided to take it in for the remainder of the day, just sitting down and thinking about it while gazing at the temple like structure. He decided to look at the look at the fire like symbol first with a tilt of his head, he then swept his gaze over to the right to look at what he thought to be wave like. “Like fire and water, maybe? So then, does the top symbol mean air? And the bottom, ground?”. In his head this made sense, opposites being at opposing sides to each other, air facing the top and ground facing the bottom. “So whatever created this, must have liked elemental things.” He reasoned.

Satisfied with his own conclusion he looked around. This place had barely any plant life, the ground was soft, and a pleasant silence echoed throughout the place. Not the sort of silence that puts you on edge, the silence that brings peace and relaxing thoughts. 

One of the aspects of the place that Steven went back to was that: the ground was soft. Steven smiled and had let out a soft sigh as his shoulders relaxed. ‘Might as well set up camp for the night’ he thought to himself, setting his sleeping bag on the ground. He laid on it. His mind drifted to his year of travel. Occasionally meeting his family, and how he would go back sometimes to spend time with everyone as he used to. To Connie, and how she was meeting up with him along the way and telling him about her studies.

The space travels had been more lonely than his earthly ones, this was in part to being in places like this, where there was not much around and no one to talk to, but also less meet ups from Connie. Don’t get the lack of meet ups wrong, their relationship is going strong; Its stronger than ever in fact, but Connie, being advanced for her age, was in University early, which meant she had less time to meet him, especially considering space travels. He had drifted off to sleep as he processed his thoughts. It was a while before he was to be woken by the same structure he had been so enamoured with.

* * *

At some point in the night the place had lit up. A white light with a slight blueness to it shone from all the symbols. Steven awoke at the unnatural light, he turned and sat up to take the sight in. “Woah. What the …” Steven said quietly to no one but himself, amazed at the light show before him and how the light kissed around the four symbols gently. It was then that a figure appeared before him.

“Hello, Steven Universe.” The figure calmly said after a moment of being there, “the one whom brought down the reign of leaders with words rather than action.”

Steven, who until a few moments ago was sat, frozen with the initial surprise, decided to answer. “I am, though I feel like you are exaggerating it a bit.” He remarked unsurely, both of himself and the situation. He wasn’t a stranger to people knowing him, broadcasting yourself for the whole universe to see made you well known, but it was the first time It was said with such certainty. It almost as if the ethereal man knew him on a personal level, which steven knew wasn’t the case.

“Who are you?” Steven asked simply. Being tired Steven got straight to the point of his curiosity, the sight of the man reminded him almost of Pearl’s hologram and the gems themselves are more female like in appearance, not that of a man with a beard.

“Where I come from, I am what is known as what one would call: The Avatar. My name however is Roku” Steven was just patiently waited for Roku to continue, when he didn’t, he decided to reply.

“Nice to meet you Roku,” Steven said with a smile, half of him was relived that this person hadn’t tried to seek his doom yet and the other half was just happy to have a bit of company. “May I ask a few questions?” Roku nodded. “You don’t seem gem, so may I ask how you know me, and what brings you to this place?”

Roku smiles before replying. “Is it fine if I talk before answering your questions. I feel a bit of explanation is in order.” It was Steven’s turn to nod. “To start off, I am long since gone in my world, still around as a spirit, but still gone. The balance in my world has been lost. My successors job is to restore that balance, and I have no doubt he will do it. However I come to you on more personal matters.”

Steven was concentrating on the man’s words, while it started off sounding like he as to be tasked with something major, the more Roku talked, the more Steven was put at ease, and the more Steven found himself more willing to help.

“Steven, my great grandchildren have been the subject of…” Roku paused slightly, trying to pick his words gently “poor upbringing,” he settled on, but still not satisfied with the wording. “Because of this, my kin are going down the wrong path. This relates to the unbalance.” Roku frowned sadly at this. “My kin are the reigning heirs to the cause of this unbalance, The avatar’s job is to create a better present, and therefore a better future, this means fighting that unbalance, however, I would still like my kin saving before it is too late.” Roku looked over at Steven, “This helps me answer your questions, I am here because I want your skill at talking to others, creating empathy that may not be there, and changing hearts and minds. I know of you because of this and I am seeking you out because of what you have achieved.”

Steven, after hearing the whole thing was more on board with this, all he wanted help with was to help family where Roku himself couldn’t. It was a noble thing to ask for, to help family. Steven thought of his own and smiled. ‘I would do what I could for mine, why wouldn’t anyone else’ steven pondered.

he frowned, not in discontent but in thought. Was he willing? He didn’t need to be needed; he was over that. He didn’t need to save anyone; again, he was past that mentality. He had got to the point where he was beginning to live for himself. Eighteen going on Nineteen, independent, exploring, living. Steven smiled, he didn’t need to, but he naturally liked helping, even when younger, he got himself involved not because he was needed to, but because he wanted to.

“By another world. Do you mean like Universe? Or like planet?” he said with the same slight smile.

“Universe, and it will only be for a year.” Roku stated, waiting patiently with a smile for steven to come to a decision.

Steven’s smile faltered slightly. ‘This probably meant no contact with everyone for that year’ he said to himself in his head. The thought brought him back to family and he smiled again. The doubts were still there, sure, but he couldn’t help in thinking that this felt right. It would be the next step in Stevens travels, the next step in his life.

With a smile, Steven nodded. “I accept,”, Roku shared that smile in such a way that his eyes shone with hope and then preceded to dip his head in gratitude. “ Though thinking of my own family, I am going to contact them, everyone who will miss me.”

“That is more than fine.” Roku looked into the distance suddenly, breaking away from his thoughts, although sensing something, “Steven, I feel a window of opportunity may be drawing close, we still have time, however, for your message.” Roku then clarified “my successor will awaken soon, and it would provide a strong surge of spiritual energy that will allow me to make a bridge between worlds.”

Steven nodded and got out his “Communication pad mini”™ With intergalactic coverage, made by: the “great and loveable” Peridot, and Pearl , Peridot being the one who named it. He smiled thinking of two. He had no time to lose, he thought of calling Connie individually to explain he might be gone for a year, but he is sure she will do fine without him if only for a year, and didn’t have the time to discuss it with her, and who knows, maybe a similar event might happen to bridge worlds again to chat to her and his family.

He decides to do a group call: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, check; Dad, check; Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth, check; Connie, check; and finally … he smiled, albeit warily but a smile non the less, the Diamonds and Spinel, check. he would only hope that Jasper, as stubborn as she was, was in the area to share a call with one of the above participants as she hadn’t yet integrated enough into earth culture to bother with a phone yet.

He had resolved himself to call everyone that would miss him. While Spinel, Jasper, and the Diamonds were not at the top of the list he would consider close family, with the past year of introspection and time spent with them on more equal standing with forgiveness: he could say they were on the list; and they were definitely on the list of people that would miss him.

With everyone on the list he hit video call. One by one they came on and joined in the call,

Bismuth, unusually, was the first to pick up, “Steveeen, nice to see you, hope you are doing well.”

Bismuth was interrupted by the Diamonds and Spinel somehow all fitting on one screen. White was the first to speak, “Oooooh Steven, coming to visit soon?”

Blue soon after “we simply must see you.”

And Yellow after her “it’s been far too long since your last visit”, all of them oozing affection.

Spinel jumping up and down, “we gotta play a game this time!” with hums of agreement from the other diamonds. After this exchange, Steven saw that everyone was present now.

Expressions where happy but confused for the most part, he would usually message before calling his family. Exceptions were: Garnet with worry instead of confusion next to Jasper but happy all the same, ‘her future vision, she must have grabbed jasper and already knew what was I’m going to tell them’ he thought to himself ; jasper who was more confused and disgruntled, if she was happy seeing Steven, she was good at hiding it; and lion who was alongside Connie with his expression wide eyed, ‘probably just happy to see me’ Steven reckoned .

“Hey guys,” Steven said nervously with a smile on view for the communication pad mini™ with Roku standing behind him. “I am calling to say that an opportunity has come up, and I’m going to go on a mission for a year.”

Greg was the first to voice his thoughts “Steven! What’s going on, you **are** ok, right?” everyone was nodding at this, sharing Greg’s same concern as it was weird for Steven to have everyone in a group call like this.

“I’m fine, honestly, and I mean it. It’s going to be like an extension to my travels, I’m just going to have a hard time contacting you all for a while” Steven said, trying to word it nicely.

Peridot and Pearl both gave a look of greater concern, Pearl opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Peridot who had the same sort of thoughts to say, “But you have the best communication device in the Universe, I personally made sure of that,” to which Pearl huffed a bit, which then Peridot blushed and corrected “we made sure of that.”

Pearl added “Steven, why wont you be able to contact us?”

Amethyst chimed in “yeah, dude, what’s going on?”

Jasper, who had been eyeing Roku suspiciously from the start, with only a select few others that began sharing this look, decided to ask about him “what’s with the earthling looking hologram behind you?” in which everyone, if they hadn’t before, was now with suspicious eyes, with the exception of Greg who was more worried than anything.

Lapis stated quickly “where are you, I’m on a warp and I can quickly fly after that if you need.”

White added, now addressing Roku “if you hurt our starlight,”

Blue continued “we will never forgive you,”

Yellow, the more military minded, finished “we won’t hesitate to go back to war!”

Spinel simply offered a menacing scowl, reminiscent of when she initially wanted revenge, performing a motion akin to cracking knuckles.

The rest followed suit in either needless supporting threats or actions.

Steven had, up until this point been overwhelmed with the cacophony of support for him. While nice, Steven himself thought it a bit overboard, almost like it had turned into a contest of who could protect him the best. It had been like this since his… rampage incident. He was about to stop it before Garnet did for him.

“Steven is ok, and Steven is going to be ok, let him speak and explain”, Steven was grateful for this, and decided to turn to Roku.

“This is Roku and he needs my help, I am going to perform some classic ‘Steven Quartz Cutie-pie DeMayo Diamond Universe magic’ for his family,” he then smiled and looked back to his phone ‘or rather my communication pad mini™ ‘ he thought to himself, “I am going to help.”

Connie, who like Garnet, up until moment ago, had been quiet until this point, flinched at the word help. “Steven, are you sure this is something you want to do.” Steven looked at her sympathetically.

“I am sure Connie, I’m in a better place now, and I promise you I’m not doing this because I think I have to, I want to, a new world with sure to behold sights to see, sounds like a natural progression anyway.”

Roku stepped in at this point smiling. “It is clear to see that Steven has a great family that his trust can be placed in. To those who have raised him to those who care for him all the same, I can tell that you all care for him. I ask of you this, like you have trust in Steven and that Steven has trust in you, I am asking you to trust me. I will make sure Steven will be safe,” Steven nods to this, and Roku Continues, “I will make sure to personally bring him home to you all who love him so much.”

Connie was still unsure but decided to trust her best friend, her Jam bud, and her partner. “ok,” she relented, still uneasy but smiling more now.

Roku looking to the distance again spoke up once more. “I feel our opportunity will be approaching.”

Steven smiled sadly this time, taking Rokus que to start ending the call “don’t worry, I will be fine, bye guys, I will be back before you know it.”

Greg, looking apprehensive, said “Goodbye Schtu-Ball, if and when you can, try give us messages, I know it’s unlikely, but we would all really appreciate it.”

Pearl’s eyes teared up slightly, “stay safe, Steven.”

Amethyst smiled sadly, “we know you will do great, man.”

Garnet looked more happier than she did at the start. “Good luck, Steven, we are proud of you.”

A few seconds had passed before goodbyes had finished and one by one, they all started coming off.

Connie, with one last smile, said “take care of yourself Steven, and come back soon.”

Steven smiled and nodded “I will, and I love you” Before a white light with a slight blue hue shot out and shone from the structure, enveloping Steven, and Roku, before the call was disconnected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, this is my first fan-fiction, so I hope I did well.  
> I hope the set up for the crossover was believable.  
> Constructive criticism welcome.  
> And I am Dyslexic, so if you find any grammar or spelling that doesn't make sense, let me know and I will change it.


	2. The New World, and A Slightly Blundered Start.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven is transported to this new world, he learns the extent of what he has to do.

As the light that had taken Steven and Roku dimmed enough so they could see again, Steven could only describe their new surroundings as a dull brown mindscape. He looked around seeing the mostly empty space, with the occasional rock and shrub here and there, separated by the slight fog that only got thicker the further down he looked. It was in that moment that Steven knew he wasn’t in his Universe anymore. He looked around a bit more, he could tell just by feeling that this wasn’t his final destination either, the place was far too ethereal and what he was standing on wasn’t ground.

It wasn’t Steven’s fault that he teared up for a while, he might not see his family for a whole year, at eighteen, it’s a good portion of his life away. Sure he might have been traveling, discovering himself, and being independent, but that didn’t change the fact he could always rely on his family whenever he needed to. This was not an option for the coming year. This was a big next step for him.

He wiped his eyes and turned to Roku. He thought about his upcoming mission. ‘Ok, so I need to practice skills I haven’t used in a while,’ he thought truthfully. The last time he used the ol’ universe charm for resolving conflict was with Spinel, and that didn’t turn out too great in his opinion, which of course was an understatement. He was rusty, but he still knew he could do some good.

Roku must have seen him pondering something because he said, “Is something bothering you Steven?” in a calm fatherly way that made him feel better about what was yet to come.

“Yes actually, I’m just thinking about how I could actually help. I have not played diplomat in a while, if I’m honest.” Roku just nodded at this, but was smiling non the less, prompting Steven to continue. “Ok, so what do I need to know that will help me out in this world.”

Roku thought for a moment then began “Steven, what did you think of the place I contacted you at?”

Steven’s thoughts returned to those symbols. “Well I figured it was like the elements, right?”

“That is correct, Steven, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. In this world, that is the natural cycle akin to the seasons, winter, spring, summer, and autumn respectfully.” Roku continued, Steven nodded, “There are people in this world that have affiliation with the four elements; these people are what we call, benders. Benders can control said elements as though they themselves were forces of nature.”

Steven nodded but less slowly than before, he understood, he was just processing the information. His mind drifted to lapis, and her ability to manipulate water, ‘does this mean that everyone can do what Lapis can?’ He thought to himself.

His expression must have given some of his thoughts away because Roku continued on, “ These elements are controlled through movement, acting as a sort of guidance to said element, both in body and mind, which then allows the people of this world to this and usually, it is that a person can control one element or none at all.”

Steven picked up on a key word. “Usually?”

Roku smiled, nodded, and then continued. “Yes, I once told you I was what people would call, The Avatar,” Steven then nodded again “The Avatar is the master of all four elements, it is The Avatar’s job to keep peace, and balance through the world. This ability over all the elements is passed down, through reincarnation to reincarnation, I am the previous incarnation of The Avatar.”

Steven pondered this, this world was definitely more spiritual than his own, it was a part of the culture and apart of the in-universe magic, much like gem abilities or “magic” of his own universe. Roku continued a bit sadly this time. “For the last one hundred years a war has consumed this world. The war is only getting worse as time goes on. The war will come to ahead at the summer of the coming year, the war will end either in the rebalancing of this world, or its end.”

Steven shuddered slightly at this, but decided to ask, “What is wrong with the current avatar? Isn’t he working to ‘re-balance’ the world?” He added, deciding to use the terminology that Roku, himself had used.

“The current Avatar has been frozen in ice for the last hundred years, Aang, my successor. You mustn’t blame him. He left and got himself frozen before the war, and he is only a child, twelve years of age.”

This struck a chord with Steven. Why is it that someone younger than he was, is tasked with stopping a war, he himself only had to do that way into being fourteen. Roku shared an expression with Steven. “It is unfortunate; usually one only has to bear the burden of Avatar duties at sixteen.” Steven winced again, it wasn’t much better as it was still teenage years, however he figured that this was a part of the culture and decided to respect this, even if he wasn’t one hundred percent happy with it.

“Ok, so who do you want helping?” Steven asked, sweeping his steady gaze that brandished a more determined look now.

“I would like help with two individuals, Princess Azula, and Prince Zuko.” Roku said with a more somber expression. Steven blinked; Roku had said heirs but didn’t think of it being of royal nature. Roku continued, “Both of my great grandchildren are heirs to the nation that started this war,” he said with a sad tone in his voice, “the two are also related to the one who started this war, fire lord Sozin. It won’t be and easy task, they are stuck in their ways, it has been under the wrong kind of rule for far too long and this will be embedded in them.” He looked over to Steven “This is why I asked for your help, Steven. You have experience in making others question what is there and why they follow what they know.”

Steven nodded to this. “Is there anything that I should now about… Azula and Zuko”, he said after a moment of recollection.

“I mentioned before, my great grandchildren have been the subject of poor upbringing, this is partly due to the legacy that Sozin left the fire nation in, but also due to not having the best father.” A frown was seen on Roku.

Steven feared the worst but let Roku continue, “ To keep this brief, Zuko has subjected to neglect, physical harm, and general distaste most of his life.” Steven frowned at this, wasn’t this abuse? It had to be, neglect had to be parents doing, he hoped the physical harm hadn’t been, general distaste applied to everyone, it wasn’t looking good.

“Zuko, however, has a good role-model in his uncle. The uncle has nothing but love to give Zuko weather he realizes this or not.” Roku smiles a bit at this, “I feel Zuko is in more of a position to return to good than Azula, as such I’d like you to focus on trying to save her for the most part.”

The frown that appeared on Stevens face spoke volumes, if Zuko sounded bad, did that mean that Azula was brought up worse? His question was answered suddenly which was both better and worse than he was expecting.

“Azula … she has been groomed to be everything her father could want in his heir. Firstly, she is a fire bending prodigy, a discipline in which she is taught all about rage and destruction to fuel her fire. Secondly, she uses fear tactics to earn power and respect, something she has learned from her father. And finally, where fear fails her, manipulation succeeds, to which she is skilled at.”

The information was assessed in Stevens mind, the only way this was better, was because it meant she didn’t have to suffer pain, or self-worth like Zuko had. In every other way however it was worse. While Zuko probably just needed a hug and love that was long overdue, Azula needed her mindset changing. It would have been something that to this day is being reinforced by her father; her being used more like a tool, than a person. Roku was right, Azula needed him more than Zuko did.

“When do I start”

* * *

A while had passed, more explanations were given by Roku, to any questions Steven could think to ask while it was just the two of them. In particular, what was being asked at the moment was where they were. “We are in a part of this land called the Spirit world. This is where you can come to talk, or I can bring you to talk.” It was nearing the end of the chat both Steven and Roku were having.

Upon realizing something, Steven had one more question to ask. “How can I be here if I am living?”

“Correct,” he replied warmly, “your physical form cannot be in the spirit world, but your consciousness can. Your physical body is already safely in the living world, asleep.”

This made sense to him, it was like how his powers worked in his world, projecting his consciousness, and leaving his body behind. “I need to do this to contact you.” It was more a statement than a question. He usually didn’t like practicing the power because of a lack of control he had on it, but if in this world, that is what he needed to do in order to receive potential help, he would have to learn fast.

A few minutes of Steven pondering prompted Roku to speak once more. “Now Steven, if this is all you wish ask at this time, perhaps it is time we return you to your body,” Roku stated, “it is morning by now and your body will be near my temple.”

After a nod from Steven he felt his astral body move. As if by magic, Steven’s consciousness was being pulled down, down to a crescent moon shaped island with a volcano in the middle.

The astral projection aligned back up with his body and he woke with a jolt. He looked around. He found himself in the centre of a creator. He paused. He realised that he must have fallen to where he was. “Well my body could have been handled better, but eh.” He didn’t mind too much, not being in pain and he wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

He pulled himself up and out of the deep creator, only to be face to face with a group of men in red robes, standing around him ready for an attack.

“Hey, woah woah, hold on!” Immediately panicking, Steven put up a defensive stance. This was quite sudden to Steven, not even five minutes moving around and already being met with people. “I mean no harm,” was all he could think to say next, after he took a moment to compose himself.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here, on this island?” The man in the front of the group had said, disregarding his comment and already pressing him for questions. All the men had suspicious eyes, who wouldn’t seeing a stranger, with foreign clothes, come out of a crater that was new to them this morning. One of the group had seen something fall in the night. When in the morning he saw it had not been a trick of his mind, and it having left a crater, had gathered up the rest of the sages to investigate what it could possibly be.

“I am Steven,” the teen immediately starts, “and I’m just here on Roku island, just making my way to the fire nation capital … which is …” He looked around, “that … way?” he mentally facepalmed, the ad-lib at the end wasn’t the brightest idea and his sentence wasn’t well thought through; he stated his goal, and his business but it was rushed, like an excuse.

Of course while having a bit truth to it, it couldn’t have felt like more of a lie to the fire sages. For the obvious one, he had pointed in the wrong direction. Second, this wasn’t Roku island, while affiliated with Roku and considered one of his islands, Roku Island was a different place entirely, this was crescent island, so again another lie. Finally “Steven” wasn’t a fire nation name, it wasn’t a name that any of them recognised from other nations either; it sounded fake therefore suspicious.

Looking at them, Steven just sighed. It was obvious that they weren’t going to budge. Looking at him one of the sages said. “We already sent a messenger hawk; you are to be taken away from this island.”

From the sounds of things being brought away from the island is not all that was planned. He assumed prison. Having been to at least two gem prisons, the hand ship and his mother’s tower coming to mind first, he couldn’t say he was fond of them. “I presume to prison, right? What if I can get you to reconsider,” he said tiredly, he was already having to bring his peace skills to use. The situation didn’t look good however, the sages were suspicious, and it didn’t seem like they were going to listen to what he had to say… unless it was important.

He thought of the task at hand, he needed to get to the fire nation princess herself. He had an idea, “If I said I am a royal wishing to seek the fire nation royals themselves for some negotiation, would that change things.” It was a gamble. While technically being royal, as much as the son of a dictator could make you royal, it wasn’t entirely true. It was a white lie, royal to the group of men in red robes probably meant a leader of one of the respective nations or a leader of land of great magnitude.

They looked at each other. “If this was true,” the head sage said in skepticism, “why come here, to the island looked after by fire sages”.

A mental note of what the group was called was recalled from memory, fire sages, Roku had said something briefly about sages of respective nations being more of a neutral party, and their job was to stay true to the Avatar. Because it was brief however, Roku left out, if he even knew himself, about how over the century, the loyalty of the fire sages in particular had changed, therefore Steven didn’t know this. Steven decided to roll with the brief information Roku had given and he continued his story, trying to make it believable. “The fire sages, are more neutral, right, but still have connection to the fire nation. Coming here was so that you could set up a meeting.”

The fire sages looked at the boy, anyone who had been around here in recent years would have known the fire nations quest for more land, and the first to be conquered would have been neutral lands in fire nation territory, as few as there were. This was especially so since Ozai’s rule. So why did the boy calling himself Steven not know this.

The head sage narrowed his eyes with a suspicious gaze. Clearly there is something to be gained in a line of questioning directed at him, and Steven seemed naïve. They all exchanged a look and the fire sages decided to play along.

Abruptly he stood straight and inclined his head in a slight bow, “Of course young prince, we will send another message to let them know of the updated situation, a ship will be coming promptly which will take you to your destination.”

Steven cased his eyes upon the rest of the sages following suit and also giving him a slight bow, Steven gave them a weary smile.

The leader of the sages watched as the other sages guided Steven back to the temple to wait for the boat. After a distance of a few paces had been made between him and the other fire sages with Steven, the head sage began to follow them.

He observed ‘Steven’; The boy really was willing to be taken directly to the fire nation capital. The name and the clothing was unlike anything he had seen before , and he had been found in a crater that wasn’t there before he was. Taking Steven to the capital would be valuable for questioning; maybe it would mean some more land for the fire nation to conquer and at the very least he was been taken to a place where him being captured was almost a given. Whatever the case, it was out of his hands now.

Steven himself was starting to get suspicious, hadn’t this been too easy, or was it just a mistake that they had been so territorial when first meeting him. This was a special island after all, so it would have made sense to be defensive, but he couldn’t help think that this was going to be harder than the situation was letting on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2, I hope you liked it
> 
> as always, feel free to point out errors and spelling/grammar mistakes
> 
> notes from myself was I feel like I struggled with the pacing of this chapter, so i hope it was ok in the end.
> 
> and I don't think i will have a posting schedule, I will probably post chapters when the next two chapters I'm working on are completed, just in case i need to change anything


	3. Politics and The Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven finally arrives at the capital, with a welcoming committee waiting for him.

After a few days of sailing, Steven didn’t know what he was worried about. The fire nation was not giving him any trouble, in fact, after a day or so of Steven being social to the older men, he reckoned they had warmed up to him. While on the first day, he was met with indifference; by his fourth day here, they met him with greeting and sometimes small talk. He would get a conversation at mealtimes, learning more about individuals or the culture of this world, this was a good trip and a good diplomatic mission so far.

As good as the it was, however, the boat ride was coming to an end. He was almost at the fire nation capital. Truth be told, he felt nervous. There was an uneasiness to how the next 24 hours were going to turn out. Would it really be kind regards, which he was now expecting, or will it be of a more hostile nature, which at the back of his mind, was always an option.

As the ship came to port, Steven turned to the crew with a final wave of goodbye then proceeded to the edge ramp, giving him an overview of the land. While there wasn’t much but mountains and pillars, it was still quite the lovely sight to behold. Slowly making his way off the ramp he was soon accompanied by what seemed to be two people in uniform. ‘Guards perhaps?’ he thought to himself as he came to a stop in front of them.

With a slight bow, the guards address the foreigner in their lands. “Our princess awaits, we shall escort you to your meeting.” Steven was about to refuse and say something about how he could make his own way there, but the guards swiftly chimed back in before he could say anything. “We insist.”

With one last look at the ship, he turned and began following the guards, guiding him to the fire nation’s welcome party.

* * *

The day was an interesting day for Princess Azula, she had been given a task that changed up her repetitive life at the palace. She loved it of course, who wouldn’t; she was adored for being the symbol of perfection every day, as far as her family was concerned. But endless praise can only be so exciting. This was something new to pique her interest.

She didn’t have to attend to it, she didn’t have to do anything, but her father seemed to think this might be worth something, and being too busy himself, asked her to represent him. Supposedly the task today was someone who was considered somewhat of an oddity. A Non-native sounding name, supposed exotic clothing, an all-around mystery. The report from the fire sages sounded fake, apparently one of the sages had seen something fall, and a crater was made on crescent island, and when they went to investigate in the morning, they had found said mysterious boy.

The sailors on the ship had also sent reports; the captain of this ship saw that the, yet to be, prisoner was talking with the occasional crew member. Naturally, the captain seized the opportunity and all key information leaked was to be reported back to him, and thus to the fire nation. The only information they really knew for certain is that he didn’t know a lot in general.

To add to the strangeness, the boy had the audacity to claim royalty and request the presence of such, no one bought it, but again, it was still worth checking out.

It was good that she was chosen in a way, she was a good liar; obviously, this meant she knew how to lie, but also was more tuned in to when others were lying also. She had planned out her interaction for the day: get him talking, assess him, and then dispose of him if she deemed him not worth the time of one, such as herself.

It was time to see what this so called ‘Steven’ was really about.

* * *

The welcome party consisted of eight guards, in two lines of four, behind what seemed to be the princess herself. To Steven, 8 guards seemed a little excessive, it put him on slight alert, but then again, he was meeting with the princess, so it did make sense. He walked slowly forward and gave a wave. She was wearing a stoic expression, akin to Garnet’s but Azula’s had a more neutral smile. 

“Steven? I presume,” Azula was the one to speak first, she was eyeing him all over, looking at his clothes and committing his face to memory. To her, he was indeed an oddity. Steven was looking back at her; he couldn’t help in feeling a slight sense of dread, He didn’t know if this was of what Roku told him or if it was her in general.

“Yes, that’s me,” he caught her looking into his eyes. She seemed to be staring him down now. He assumed this was to gauge something from him, so he stared back. He stared back because he wanted to present himself as strong willed and not one to falter, even if he was a bit awkward usually.

This lasted longer than Steven expected, it was like the first one to look away loses, and his first challenge with the princess was something he didn’t want to lose. While the staring contest continued between them, she decided to speak again, “Shall we get going to somewhere more comfortable, out here in the open isn’t the best place for **royals** to talk is it.”

‘This was a test’ Steven reckoned, he didn’t know exactly what she was testing for but his first idea was the battle of wills they were having, will he break this for the sake of getting on with negotiations that they were meant to be having, or will he continue the battle out of pride.

After holding her gaze for a moment longer, he decided to relent. He didn’t want to come off as standoffish in a new land, and his task was more important to him. He closed his eyes and nodded “That is a good idea princess, where do you recommend, we do this”.

* * *

Azula smirked, he gave in. It had been fun while it lasted but ultimately, she was the winner. She sensed a stubborn nature in him for lasting as long as he did, but she found that pride was not his top priority. With guards in tow, Azula led him back to her palanquin for two, positioned not too far from where they were, she got in first and Steven soon after. As soon as they both were settled, it began movement. Steven lost balance for a second, as he was not expecting the movement even while sat down.

Azula noted this, he wasn’t used to this form of transportation, clearly. Not stubborn enough to represent the pride of where you are from and not used to royal transport. She couldn’t be faulted for, at this point, deciding she was correct in that assuming he wasn’t a royal. So that avenue of possibilities was a dead end, but there was still an air of mystery that could still be worth cracking.

“So Steven, where did you say you were from?” she said, straight to the point. She observed him again. There was still information to be gained by playing along.

“I didn’t,” he said slowly, “I am from. Beach city, it’s on the coast” there was a slight pause while answering, lie.

“And how did you get onto crescent Island?” she asked, closing her eyes in thought.

“A friend transported me there to set up this diplomatic meeting and left.” He said faster this time.

If she wasn’t sure before, she would definitely have known now, even an idiot could have worked it out; why would anyone, royal or not, leave someone on an island, territory to the might that is the fire nation, without an escape plan if things went wrong. “They were sure you would be safe?” she asked in disbelief, but her natural stoic tone hid this.

“Yes, they promised me I would be.” Steven said with a smile, probably trying to show and tell about the trust he had for the fire nation. The trust was misplaced, if it had been anyone else, it would have been straight to prison with an intruder.

“Last question before we get down to business.” She spoke again, abandoning that line of questioning. “Where did you get your clothes from?” she finally asked it. The reason for giving him special treatment, besides the royal claim.

* * *

A look of surprise appeared on Stevens face; he wasn’t expecting that question. He looked down at himself, looking at each item. “Custom made,” he said suddenly, “my kingdom makes this sort of clothing, its common where I am from.

Azula closed her eyes again. She seemed satisfied with this answer as she didn’t question it further. It shouldn’t have been a surprise; he realised his clothes were different, but for whatever reason he didn’t think anyone would ask about them as they hadn’t so far into his time being in this new world.

“So what did a Royal, such as yourself, want from a meeting with the fire nation. What could possibly be gained from such a meeting.”

Steven had thought about this, it was the biggest question to him while he was on the ride over. He wanted interaction with Azula, but how could he get consistent interaction that would enable him to help Azula. He wasn’t a good liar, that was a given, as such, the idea he had come up with wasn’t the best. “My city recognizes the greatness that is the fire nation, you are sure to win this war. We of Beach City aim to offer our services, starting with myself, I seek employment, and depending on how well it turns out, the rest of my people will follow, surrendering themselves to you.”

“Oh, now that’s interesting.” Azula said with an amused smile, “you wish to integrate and migrate to the winning side?” there was a glint in her eye, something that told Steven he had her interest.

“Yes, we are a peaceful kingdom, and would rather not fight a war as such as this” he said and then panicked slightly as it made them sound weak, which might not be desirable, so then decided to add, “that doesn’t mean we can’t fight, we would just prefer less bloodshed on either side.”

At the last line, the amused smile of Azula diminished slightly. “How noble, well I can tell you that you are making the right choice, the fire nation is sure to conquer all, so resistance is a poor waste of energy for everyone involved.” She locked her eyes on him once again “Tell me, what sort of employment are you, yourself, wanting?”

He thought for a moment, “I would like something to do in the palace, you know, seeing as I’m a royal and all.” He was satisfied with his own idea; this was ideal for him as he wanted to be close to where he would be able to do some good.

Azula got back the amused look from earlier. “What did you have in mind?” eyeing him up again

“I like to garden.” I said honestly, “I don’t get to often, but I can take care of a garden really well.” He said with a smile, hoping and pleading with his eyes that she would go along with that.

“No, no, that won’t do. Where is the respect in that?” She said with a teasing tone. “Why go from prince to groundskeeper? I know your nation is submitting to us, but you don’t have to go that far.” Steven didn’t like where this was going. “No, you need something more, how about royal guard, that’s much more of an appropriate role, don’t you think.” It was at this point the palanquin stopped and she got up to get out.

Steven followed behind to protest. “Wait, don’t worry about that, we don’t need to be given that much, we are peaceful, remember” Azula turned around to look back at him, having led him to training grounds.

“But you can still fight” she said, using his own words against him, “that is what you said, and being a leader, your skill must be above average, what could be a better way of testing a group, than having one as representative.”

Steven looked around. The eight guards from before now surrounded him and Azula. Steven stood in silence as he glanced around, Azula waiting for a response. He eyed the guards; all had their weapons drawn and were all in a stance. He eyed Azula; she was standing, arms behind her back and posing in such a way that anyone could tell was authoritative. He closed his eyes and sighed.

“You really want to test my combat ability?” he opened his eyes to look directly at Azula’s. No words were needed to know that she was going to test his combat ability whether he wanted to oblige or not. He sighed again. He was surprised he wasn’t attacked right off considering her reputation. Why hadn’t he been. “Am I versing the guards, or am I versing you?”

“Oh please, why would I ever allow a peasant to fight me, without proving their worth.” The penny dropped, she knew, “You and the guards are sure to give me some entertainment,” Azula mocked as she took steps backward out of the ring, and then snapped her fingers. “At least try survive a few minutes.”

At the snap of her fingers the guards began to step closer to Steven. Steven himself was panicking slightly as he readied up a stance; weapons, they were using weapons, he had experience countering those. Without missing a beat, Steven summoned his shield.

* * *

The boy had made it easy for her, he didn’t doubt for a second that they were having a so-called meeting. She had asked what she needed, he hadn’t given valuable information, nor did it seem he would even give any as a guest, so information given as a prisoner was the only option. Little did she know, getting him to fight would only give her more questions than answers.

The first thing Steven did when the fight started was produce a shield. It had to have appeared out of thin air, he couldn’t have been hiding it in his god awful, weird clothing. However what it had to be didn’t make sense to her. How? It wasn’t bending, of that much she is certain. Fire and air were never solid, and earth was never as translucent as this shield was, so at first, she thought it could be Water. The notion was quickly dismissed however when she paid attention to the detail. No self-respecting water bender would take time and effort to make it perfectly round, put a pattern on it, and keep pink water around just so they could make this particular shield. ‘Make that two’ she thought as she saw now that a second one appeared out of thin air to help with his defence. ‘Definitely not water bending’ she thought after seeing the sudden appearance of this one much more clearly.

She had to admit, he handled himself with a shield pretty well, both using them for offence and defense depending on the need at that moment in battle. One by one she watched her guards get pushed back, knocked back, or new weapons as they kept breaking under the defence and offence against the shields. She kept watching his movements, his offensive movements were only ever used in pushing or knocking back, he was toying with them, he hadn’t actually hurt anyone yet.

As the battle went on, Azula decided that she had had enough of this. Steven was letting the battle drag out without having the decency to do anything about winning. On top of that, Her guards were letting down the fire nation, being bested by a person using defensive items, something that should never win battles on its own, especially against trained soldiers, and if she was honest with herself, if the battle were to continue and if Steven put in more effort than he was doing, Azula’s men would have lost. What a surprise, the only one she could count on, was herself. So she put a stop to it.

Azula started clapping, causing everyone to stop, the guards out of respect, and Steven out of confusion. “Well done, well done, that was quite the show, it lasted longer than I thought,” She said with a coy attitude, “you are right, wherever you are from. You can fight.” Azula, stepped forward, dismissing her guards. They had done enough, they had lost. She wouldn’t have admitted it, but she was frustrated with their loss. Azula prided herself on winning, the guards were representing her and were losing, so of course she would have been frustrated. She would never let it show though, not to herself, and not to everyone present currently, especially to the one that she was about to face.

* * *

Steven started relaxing and let his shields disappear; while he wasn’t sure if he needed them or not, the perceived fight had ended, and he could make more if he needed. He seemed to be getting what could only be praise. She acknowledged his fighting ability and was heading towards him clapping. “Like my weapon of choice?” he said smiling as he got back into conversation mode.

Azula didn’t reply to this, she only looked at him in contempt as he stood before her. She studied him for a bit before finally saying, “You fight well for a peasant. Tell me, is that all you can do?”

“I can do a bit more” He replied back humbly, he watched her carefully. He wasn’t sure he should drop his guard yet, but all he could do was wait for her to make the next move. Steven and Azula seemed to be caught up in another staring contest, He decided to not back-down but still talk in the meantime, “pretty cool right?” He was trying to gauge some form of interaction from her, but she seemed less responsive than earlier.

After thought on her part she finally spoke. “We both know you are not royal, why did you come here.” She narrowed her eyes slightly, “don’t tell me it was actually to get a job,” Steven gave her a sheepish look, he saw that this gave her the response she needed, “all this effort for a job in a palace? Do you really want to be here that badly?” She mocked, gaining her coy attitude from earlier in the day. “I don’t believe you actually deserve a place here.”

It was here when Steven got a bit defensive, “What, why? I fought though I didn’t want to, and you said I did good right? What do I still have to do?” it didn’t make sense to him, granted he hated being made to do that, but he was proud of his standing just then; he bested 8 people at once, they had no abilities sure, but he won just with his shields, and he didn’t even hurt them. 

“Too few injuries on the guards,” Steven gulped, she had noticed his pacifistic style of fighting. “if you are honestly thinking about wanting something here, you have to prove it.” Steven daren’t ask, he was sure it was more violence, but what could it be in order for Steven to prove himself.

“To be a royal guard, you have to be good at hand to hand combat.” Steven was about to protest about not wanting to be a guard but one look from Azula silenced him. He knew if he were to stay close to Azula, this was the only job she would let him have. Once it was evident that Steven was silenced, she spoke again, “as a guard you have to be able to take on advanced threats that might make their way into the palace, hand to hand is a basic form of combat, and as such is basic defense and offence for royal guards.” Azula smirked.

It was at this point Steven realised what she was doing, she was preparing for a fight, but in a context where he wasn’t allowed to use his powers, if he did, it would break the job description she was setting up and not be accepted into the palace. However, Steven had her beat in basic physical attributes. He had gotten control of his diamond speed and strength over his last 18 months, and while he was nowhere near as fast and as strong as he was when pink, it was still a step up from how he used to be, and thus regular person standard.

It had been a chore to get a grip on his more destructive powers, but it had been necessary, he didn’t want to accidentally use them without being pink, so he practiced and made sure he had control on these.

Steven had known where this was going, she was going to challenge him herself. So when she readied her stance in preparation for the fight, it didn’t surprise him. “if you can beat me, you get the job.”

“You make the first move, princess Azula.” Steven said with a stern look, he didn’t want to hurt anyone again, so his plan was to just counter. He readied up himself and looked at her.

* * *

Azula scowled slightly, she knew what he was going to do. He was going to play defensive again and not try attack and hurt her like some frail doll. She scoffed. She would fight him, but not now. He was far too weak minded for her to measure him up as a fighter. “Actually, I changed my mind, you’re hired.”

It was amusing to her how much Steven wore his heart on his sleeve, he was stupidly wearing a confused expression, then one of suspicion. “Don’t worry, you are hired, no tricks, I decided you have something to offer me.”

Steven’s face turned to disbelief, “Really? No more fighting?” he sounded hopeful.

“Yes, no more fighting,” ‘for now’, she said and thought as he dropped his defensive stance. “You impressed me, Welcome to the fire nation.” She clapped her hands and two guards came forward. She turned to address them, “Send him to the break-room on the west wing to wait for further instructions.” And with that, Azula decided to take her leave.

Azula made her way back into the palace, to report to her father about the person called Steven, and his new status as guard. Steven was something interesting to her; as she walked the halls, she couldn’t help but think about the interaction with him so far that day. The more and more she thought about the fight, the more happier she was at getting him ‘employed’. He was bound to be a military gain if she used him correctly, just how to use him was the question. It was clear to Azula that Steven was harmless at the moment. If he had any ulterior motives in coming here, which she is sure he didn’t, he would have done something already.

While she thoughts of Steven being soft mulled over in her brain, another thought occurred to her; it was useful to keep him around because she also wanted to rectify the indirect humiliation she experienced today. Azula looked forward to getting Steven back, which could be at any time she chose, now that he was around her home.

* * *

Steven could hardly believe it. He had a way to get constant contact with Azula, he had completed step one. As he was being led to the room, he reflected on the actions of his afternoon, even though it was unavoidable, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed at what transpired. Roku had prided him on being able to act without physical conflict, and he was in one within his first day on fire nation grounds. He decided he would do better and not get into anymore conflicts that weren’t needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 is probably my favourite so far.
> 
> In an alternate version, I did have Steven and Azula fight, but I felt it was out of character for both of them in a way, so I changed it, I couldn't justify it being there. 
> 
> As always I welcome criticism, and feel free to point out errors.


	4. The New Day, The New Job, and The Disgruntled Guard.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven's first day as a palace guard, another isn't too happy about it.

It was close to evening before Steven was interacted with again. After his almost fight with the princess herself, he was sent to this room as temporary residence while things were sorted out. The break room was nice, but it wasn’t anything to sleep in. An older woman in uniform came through the door to address him. “Steven, I presume?” Steven stood up to nod.

“Yes, are things sorted yet?” he was eager to find out what awaited him. The Woman nodded and took him outside the palace to a building not too far from it.

The woman spoke up, “We have arranged a room for you in guard housing,” she said as they entered the building. “You are to report to the front of the palace at sunrise, there, you will start your first day on the job.”

Steven looked at the woman as they walked, “It’s all happening so fast.” He stated unsurely. He had never really had a job like this before. Sure, he used to be one of the administrators of Little Home School, and helped plan lessons; and he did the odd gig when younger, like helping Sadie at The Big Doughnut, or posing as a future telling robot, but this job felt more real to him, and this came with more pressure. He could argue to himself that he was only doing this to get close to Azula to change her, but at the same time he felt a weight of responsibility to making sure he kept this job and position, at least for the time being.

The woman responded to him in a gruff attitude, “Tough luck, get used to it. Here is your room.” And with that, she left him at a door. Steven watched as she walked away, deciding to brush off her rude comment, he turned back towards the door to his new room. He took a steady breath before opening the door and crossing the threshold, softly closing it behind him with a dull thud.

Steven looked around his living quarters. It was a lot smaller than he was used to. In touring around on earth, it was sometimes necessary that he sleep in a car, be it his Dondia, or some other car he rented for the different countries, but they were far and few between. He had usually spent nights in hotels or motels due to his dad being more than willing to spend for him to be safe, and if that wasn’t the case, he would camp, and be used to nature being his room and just viewing the tent as his bed. His new room was small, even when compared to motel rooms.

In the room held a single bed tucked tightly into the far corner with a lone pillow and thin duvet spread across it, fire nation uniform folded on top, and on the opposite wall there was a small wooden desk with a similar wooden chair which was clearly used for the desk.

He assumed this was because guards that lived this close were on duty more often than not and didn’t need a lot in their bedroom, besides, they had the break room he was waiting in, and that was more than spacious. He noted the fire nation uniform being that of what the guards were wearing, which is what he guessed he was be wearing from now on. With a smile in making himself at home, he sat, then laid on the bed to rest, it was a big day for him tomorrow.

* * *

In the morning, Steven got up, put on the uniform, and headed straight for the palace, he didn’t really know what being a guard would entail but he would report to whomever as soon as he could. He stood outside the entrance door. While he waited, Steven began a guard like stance, his legs apart and arms behind his back. Quite frankly, he wasn’t sure if he was doing it right, he didn’t even know if he was meant to be stationed here all day. Before he could finish the thought, the woman from yesterday came up to him. “Nice to see you are taking this seriously, but your pose is trying too hard,” she remarked with an apathetic tone. “Your duty for today is to shadow me, it’s clear you are new to this, and it was a request from the princess herself.”

“Thank you, I will be in your care” he said happily as he stood normally ready to follow her. She merely waved her hand, brushing off his comment as they entered the palace. “So, What’s your name?”

“Not important,” was the only response he got. Steven was about to make more conversation, but given her attitude so far, he decided against this. After they walked in silence through one of the halls of the palace, the quiet was interrupted by the woman again. “Here is the schedule for the day. The first task is patrolling the halls, no one usually dares attempt anything, but it is procedure. The second task is to oversee Princess Azula’s training in hand to hand, after this we shall escort her to a meeting with her father. Task number three is to stand guard of this meeting, no one is to enter while it is in progress.” Steven just looked at her as she spoke, trying to remember all the tasks for the day, he knew she wasn’t finished with the list, as such he tried to make a mental note of what the first tasks were. She continued, “Number four is to oversee her fire bending training, and finally, we go back to patrolling the halls, unless ordered otherwise.’’

“Is that what the day is usually like, for guards I mean? It feels like our day is centered around Azula’s day.” Steven pondered out loud but then suddenly was stopped.

“Princess Azula,” she sharply corrected, “, you don’t act so familiar with the royal princess as a guard and no, guards usually have posts all around the palace, we are only doing this routine today because someone is getting special treatment,” she snidely remarked, side glancing at him.

Steven frowned slightly. ‘He was getting special treatment?’ Is that why she had a sour mood so far?’ he decided not to respond to this and antagonize her further, whatever the situation, it was clear the fellow guard was disgruntled by it.

* * *

The hours doing the first task had been dull for Steven. The woman he was shadowing seemed to like silence between them, so all he seemed to be doing for the first hour was just walking next to the female guard.

The slight boredom was over however when it was time for the next task, overseeing Azula’s training. Even if Steven was still silent during this time, at least it was something interesting, compared to walking through similar looking hallways, not that he was complaining of course, he needed this job to do Roku’s task, and if that meant walking through hallways all year, it was necessary.

They made their way to the training grounds. The memory of being partially ambushed came back to him, which made Steven uncomfortable when stepping onto the training grounds. When they arrived Azula was already in progress with training. She was taking two opponents at once, her movements were precise and calculated; she almost knew what both opponents were doing at all times and dodged or attacked pre-emptively. It looked like it wasn’t expending much of her effort, it was more like a dance than a fight, Azula being the one controlling the tempo and pace of the choreography. It was clear who was the cat, and who were the mice. When both opponents were taken care of, she turned her gaze towards Steven and his temporary companion.

“You both were late.” It was a statement worn with a slight frown from Azula.

When it was clear Azula wasn’t going to say anything else on the matter, the female guard spoke up “We are sorry princess it won’t happen again,” and performed a bow. She dragged Steven by the arm down with her, ushering him to bow exactly like she was, so he copied her.

“You are pardoned, don’t let it happen again or there will be consequences.” Azula warned before turning back to the training ground. She began facing one opponent this time, but the fight was different, it was less agility based and more strength. Steven could tell as she was putting more effort into her moments, almost as if trying to hit through the opponent to get her power across.

Steven, as soon as his temporary companion stopped bowing, stopped bowing also. He turned to her; she was slightly scowling at him again. He was about to speak when she shook her head and gestured for him to pay attention. Steven sighed and went back to watching Azula incapacitate more opponents.

Steven watched a few more matches, before a messenger came to get Azula for her meeting. As such, they followed to stand guard at the door, making sure no one got in. Once again, they were in silence. Steven had to break it this time. “What do you think they are talking about?”

The woman sighed impatiently, “Something clearly important.” She didn’t even bother to look at him and it was the only answer Steven got before the silence resumed.

“What makes you say that?” Steven spoke again, trying to not spend another hour in silence. No response. “What important stuff do you think they are talking about?” No response. “What if it’s…”

She finally responded. “We are guards. What goes on in that room, will only concern us, if, in that room, they decide that the rest of the palace should know. It’s not our business,” She sharply explained, with an annoyed tone.

It was Stevens turn to get annoyed, but with a breath he calmed down, steadied his own tone, and spoke gently “What’s wrong, do you not like me or something? If I’m going to be blunt here, I feel like you have been…” She shot him the stink eye, which made Steven chose his words carefully, “not very nice since I got here,” He said finally, back pedaling his supposed bluntness. While he was nicer in not saying that she had been rude, he couldn’t help but feel rude himself for bringing it up.

After a few uncomfortable minutes, with Steven looking at her earnestly, she decided to respond, but his time she responded more level-headed, with only a slight annoyed undertone. “You don’t know how lucky you are.” She looked at him with a frown, “Do you know how hard it is to get this position?” Steven shook his head, “No you don’t. You turned up one day, with a terrible disguise and somehow you ended up being a royal guard.”

Steven just looked at her and frowned slightly, deciding to keep listening, “Do you know what others have to get through to be a royal guard, first they have to be stationed elsewhere, in the city or prison, get a few promotions, and then and only then, if they are lucky, they get here. You, without family connections, without any merit, without anything, just came here, and rose up to this job. I have worked a lot to get here, it’s just frustrating that you got it so easily.”

Steven just looked down, this made sense to him and made him feel a little guilty. “I’m sorry. You are right, I should feel really lucky” he said quietly as she now stared at him. He paused for a moment before speaking again. “at first, I felt like this job was forced on me, even I felt it was too much. But I decided to accept it, and work with it.” He looked up at her, “If I’m honest I viewed it as, ‘it will do’ rather than ‘I am lucky’. But I am new here, I don’t know a lot about this place, it’s clear I have a lot to learn.“

“Look, I know in your own way, you are trying to make amends, but what you are saying isn’t helping, leave your sentimentality at the palace door. I know of your situation, you wanted to be a gardener was it? Well you have this.” She turned forward again after this, Steven looked down sadly again, he didn’t help things. He cast his gaze back to her, silently letting her know it was ok to continue if she needed to vent anything else.

She frowned less viciously than before and sighed, she knew she was being slightly unreasonable, but she wasn’t done however, she had a bit more to explain to say and she was still angry, though talking to him about it did seem to make her less angry as she voiced concerns. “To make it worse, even in this job you seem to get special treatment, do you know what an honour it is to be guard to the princess herself and follow her around all day, only select few get that, and to top it all off, she was lenient when we were late, any other set of guards would have been demoted, she is ruthless like that, but because it was you, nothing happened. I should thank you, but that only would add to my frustration.”

Steven was about to speak again, but it was clear she wasn’t in the mood to speak anymore. While the silence was like before, at least he understood her this time, so didn’t make an effort to talk anymore while the meeting was going on.

* * *

The silence wasn’t for too much longer, the meeting was over not before too long. The first to leave was Azula and this promptly made Steven and the Older guard follow her with haste. Azula was wearing a thoughtful frown, she continued to wear this look, when suddenly she gained one of conclusion and stopped, turning to Steven. “You! Steven, when was it you arrived on Crescent Island?”

Steven’s eyebrows raised in shock at the abruptness of the question. Taking a moment to get calm again, he answered.

The sudden turn startled Steven, her tone was accusatory but calm. He took a moment to get calm himself before stating, “Would have been about five or six days ago, Why?” She didn’t answer however, she just thought for a moment before gaining a similar look to before, then resumed her march like stride back to the training grounds.

Before stopping at the door to the outside, Azula turned to look at her two followers. She eyed Steven suspiciously for a bit before talking. “The meeting was about the Avatar returning.” Steven saw an expression of shock from the female guard and decided to mirror it after a moments delay. Azula continued, “Commander Zhao, a loyal soldier to my father, intercepted information from my brother’s ship and his crew, they saw a beam of light, which was The Avatar returning, and The Avatar himself.” She looked at Steven, “This happened 6 days ago.” Steven stiffened a bit “To back up this claim, a few days ago, sights from all around the world depicting the avatar glowed. We could make sense of this from the information from Zhao, The Avatar is back, strangely enough, still a child after 100 years.”

Steven shifted a bit; he didn’t like the line the current conversation was going in. Luckily for him however the conversation seemed to stop there, as Azula swept herself around and pushed through the door to the training ground for the second time that day. She made her way down the stairs to begin training, and Steven stood back where he was last time as the older woman followed after.

Steven looked over at his mentor for the day, she was still grumpy but appeared less tense than last time she was there. Silence was once again the song of the day, the only sounds heard being fire blasts and the occasional, louder than usual, exhale from training. Steven noticed Azula held herself to a too higher standard. When performing fire bending sets, she would stop halfway through something if she made any mistakes at all which were very few, or rather mistakes as far as Azula herself was concerned. To him it looked decent, but he wasn’t a fire bender so he couldn’t really know. What he did see was that the moves she made were more or less the same, the same move, same intensity and speed, indicating to him that maybe she thought she was an inch off with her movements, or she thought her fire shape was a bit off, or … He could go on, but what he did know was that he didn’t feel repeats were necessary.

* * *

After her training was over, Azula left the grounds, which meant task number 5, patrolling the halls again. It looked like it was going to be another few hours of quiet.

The guard next to him had looked over in his direction, still wearing a frown but sighed before deciding to break the silence she seemed so fond of, “Thanks for hearing me out earlier, and sorry, I was just frustrated.” Steven swept his gaze to her in shock, he wasn’t expecting that.

“D..Don’t mention it,” he said after a while, the stutter evident he was still in surprise. “I’ll continue to try my best to live up to expectation of guard.” This broke her default frown for a second.

“Leave all sentimentality at the door, remember.” She smirked a little before going back to default.

“Shall we exchange names now?” Steven asked hopefully. Would he make a friend?

“Still not important,” Stevens hope for friendship shattered slightly for the day, but smiled a bit himself.

“Well you might know, but my name is Steven, Steven Universe.” He said as he walked alongside her.

“Didn’t know you had a second name, but yes, I called you your name yesterday, and Princess Azula said your name earlier.” Steven face palmed, he tried to make it a sentimental moment, but it was more of an embarrassing one; he forgot that she did in fact know his name. She was right, he should have left sentimentality at the palace door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK so two things 
> 
> First is the guard, I'm not too fond of OCs being a large role in the story when they aren't the focus, so to highlight that she isn't, I haven't even given her a name.  
> That being said however, she will pop up every now and again, so it turns out, I kinda do need a name, and I cant think of what would be a good fire nation name, so feel free to suggest some. 
> 
> Second is a funny story.  
> So thanks to a suggestion on my first chapter (I really appreciated it by the way, help goes a long way :D) the person who looks over my story has been given a larger role.  
> Their role has extended from simple proof reader to.... check for if I'm out of character, keep track of pacing, consistency with plot points, and most importantly helping me with description.  
> I bring this up, because in my original draft for the chapter, I had the sentence listing off furniture in a room, and that was it. So after they read that, turned around to me and just went, "This sentence here, its unacceptable" with a smile on their face. After weak complaints from myself about how it was trying to get across the simplicity of the room, they rightfully changed it. Just thought I'd share that with you all because I found the word "unacceptable" funny with the blunt delivery :D 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as always, feel free to give feedback and point out errors.


	5. Power Plays and Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azula starts making it her mission to turn Steven loyal, which is met with resistance, and to get information Azula wants, a trip has to be made.

A few days had passed, Steven was getting used to his guard routine, and Azula was working on something. She had an idea that sounded impossible, and plausible at the same time, did Steven have something to do with The Avatar? It was clear he definitely wasn’t The Avatar. Steven wasn’t an estimated 12-year-old, bald monk, and he had an alibi for major events and sightings, so no, it was clear to anyone that Steven wasn’t The Avatar. But that didn’t stop Azula thinking there could be some form of connection.

First of all, timings lined up, 6 days, it was more like 11 days now, but when she initially confronted him about it, he said 6 days. Second was that Steven was strange, the whole reason why he was here in the first place. Wrong sounding name, initial weird clothes, him just appearing on an island one day, all strange. To make it more suspicious, the island Steven appeared on was the very island with a temple dedicated to The Avatar. Finally, unearthly powers. The only one she knew was that he could make shields out of thin air, but Azula was sure he had more tricks up his sleeve. “It can’t be a coincidence,” she said aloud to no one, “the timing, the uniqueness, it just can’t be.”

Unfortunately, she had no proof. She couldn’t out right ask Steven either. The Avatar is considered the fire nations enemy. While it had no bearing on kicking him out in her mind, a pawn was a pawn, that information might make Steven more reluctant to get into anything if he were to be questioned. That needed to be changed soon, the mindset Steven had. The mindset she wanted was a loyal soldier, one that would give truths when asked.

Azula hadn’t tried changing Steven yet, she found the best way to do this was having power over the one you are trying to shape. Steven was a wild card at the present, having portion of the deck she hadn’t seen in play yet, and he was new to the fire nation, which meant her being the princess probably had less impression on him, considering he was trying to pose as a royal himself. However that was going to change starting now. He had information, so she needed to start wearing him down. It was time for Azula to try use tactic one, fear.

She still needed the information she suspected as soon as possible though. Was there a connection? At that moment she remembered something she deemed insignificant. A crater. It was a detail, from one of the fire sages’ reports, that she deemed untruthful. Yes, he was found in a crater, but one of them claimed to have seen him falling in the night, only to find him there in the morning at the center of what he supposedly caused. When she initially read the report, she deemed it a dramatization or that Steven was checking out what caused the creator when he was dropped off and that’s when they found him. But if it was literal, then he really did cause the creator, and it was worth looking into. She would even say worth personally looking into, Azula didn’t know why, but she had a good feeling about going in person, as if there would be insight only available if she herself was there.

Her downtime was over and it was time for her fire bending training, but as soon as her training was over, she will send for a ship to take her to crescent island, and for Steven to visit the place which he had just come from.

* * *

In her training Azula was being hard on herself again, striving for perfection. But she felt it necessary to be hard on herself. Perfect training meant perfect practice, and perfect practice meant perfect results. Her own goal was to make sure that she always got perfect results. Which is why perfect routines in training were strived for. Repeating them in her mind was necessary to get at least one flawless run through so that it was more likely in application. However, todays training session she was going to make a ‘mistake’. To make this ‘mistake’ she needed the perfect opportunity.

After a while she found it. She ‘misfired’ part of her fire bending set directly at Steven. Unsurprisingly he dodged, no new abilities shown to her, pity. “What the heck was that for!” Steven called out after recovering. After the response, the guard he was on shift with gave him a look of panic.

“What’s this? Back talk from a guard?” Azula coyly smirked back loud enough for Steven to hear, “is that any way to talk to your princess?”

“You just shot at me!” Steven complained, “on purpose.” He added as he looked at her in shock that she did such a thing.

“It wasn’t on purpose, mistakes are made.” Azula mocked back, faking offence.

“but not by you, and you know it!” Steven said getting a little heated from the suddenness of this encounter.

“Still talking back? Get down here and apologize.” Azula smirked. She had treated him lenient for far too long, he was like a new toy she didn’t want to break, but the novelty had worn off starting earlier that day, it was time to show him his place.

Her eyes tore through him as he descended to where she was, his expression had changed from discontent to worry, and the worry was more mixed with unease as he got close to Azula. “On your knees.” Azula casually stated with her stoic grin. This made Steven scowl faintly, which Azula only caught because she was paying close attention, anyone else would have just seen the unease, worry, the new emotion of slight regret. There was a moment of thought as he glanced around with his eyes before he descended slowly.

Azula was only partially satisfied, he had resistance, even until the last moment, but he did still comply. It was because of the resistance that she made him wait a bit before demanding, “Now apologize.” Which he did with a slight undertone of annoyance.

After another small while, she decided that she was satisfied with her training and gave one last instruction to the boy. “Don’t get up until I am through those doors.” She ordered as she ascended the stairs to the door. The last view she got before the doors closed was the guard, he was partnered with go over to help him up as he wore a scowl on his face.

As a first start at breaking him, she thought it was well done, she made sure he knew who was in charged, shattered his pride a bit, and she affirmed that he did want this job enough to degrade himself that much for it.

She smirked to herself one last time before she stopped thinking about it and began thinking about what the rest of her day would be doing. The Avatar. His existence irked Azula; partly because he was a threat to the empire, but mainly because it meant that her brother had a chance at coming home and returning to becoming first in line for the throne, being the eldest.

But if Zuko wasn’t the one to return with the avatar, her troubles would be over. Zhao, He would be the preferable option to her. If he was the one to capture The Avatar, then no problems for her. She would go see her father about that later. She got started on arranging the trip to crescent island, she reckoned she would be gone for a week and a half. Four days there, at least a day of stay, and four days back. Worth it for her potential answers.

After arrangements were made she then went to go see her father, it was a short meeting, in it she had slyly suggested that Zhao was doing the nation proud in pursuing the avatar and being loyal enough to relay the information back to the capital. Getting Zhao resources was key, and thus getting Zhao into The Fire lord’s good graces was necessary as well. For now this was enough, a bit more work would be needed on it but for a start it was something. With that and her expedition approved she left the meeting.

* * *

Steven felt insulted. He was degraded in front of peers out of nowhere with no prompting. His not so temporary partner had said that, that is what she was usually like, using such tactics to remind everyone of the palace food chain, though she admitted herself that this case seemed a little on the extreme side. He just didn’t understand it. For his 6 days of being a guard it seemed like he was favoured, now it was a complete one eighty and she had started treating him the worse out of all the guards, just like that.

He had a feeling that it wouldn’t be an isolated incident, he knew there was more to come. It seemed like she wanted to prove something to him, and of course he complied, not wanting anymore violence, and not wanting to lose the job. As necessary as he felt it was though, he couldn’t help but feel humiliated, he knew that was the goal in her actions, but he didn’t realize it would give this much of a lasting impression on him.

Steven sighed as he patrolled the halls for the second time that day. It didn’t need to be done as a two anymore as he was acquainted with the role now, it was quiet. It wasn’t until then that Azula came around the corner. Steven shuddered as she made a beeline for him. “Just the person I wanted. I came to personally tell you we are going on an expedition by boat, tomorrow night.”

“What’s the reason, Princess Azula?” Steven forced himself to politely say, which of course Azula smirked at, unsurprisingly.

“We are going to go to a place you have already been before. Crescent island,” She said, not really answering his question but then deciding to with slightly concealed information, “I have business there, and I concluded that since you have been there recently, you would be the personal guard for this mission.

“Oh? …thanks,” he said unsurely but then corrected “Err... I mean , thank you Princess, it will be an honour. I will pack my things for tomorrow” He said slightly excited to get away on a fire nation ship again, hoping the crew was as pleasant as the last one he was aboard. 

Before he began to leave, Azula stopped him to say, “You are dismissed.” Steven frowned, both he and Azula could see he was going, but she added this to make it seem like he was following her order, which again, they both knew wasn’t true. Steven paused for just a second as he left, sighed, and then continued to leave. Again, she was trying to train him like some form of dog, and Steven didn’t appreciate it.

Steven felt conflicted, Azula was giving him an oxymoron of signals, both treating him like dirt starting spontaneously that day, but favouring him that he got to go as, what she called, a ‘personal guard’.

Steven grumbled as he packed his clothes and a spare change of uniform, and then made his way to an early sleep. As he did sleep and replayed the events with Azula in his mind, that was when Steven subconsciously decided to make more of an effort to start changing Azula just a she too that day decided to start changing him.

* * *

The next day of guard duty had finished before Steven knew it. There was a few more attempts from Azula to do whatever she was trying to do, but he got through them; he had sailing on the brain and nothing was going to get to his mood.

Stevens excitement baffled himself a bit, he didn’t really know why he was happy, it could have been that he had a nice experience learning on the way here, or that he was getting away from monotonous palace work. In any case, he wasn’t this excited when he experienced sailing on his worldly travel or even before that when his father arranged a boat to help Lapis.

He and Azula walked down together to the dock, or rather Azula rode in front on the palanquin and Steven followed, but again he was happy, and nothing was going to shake his mood. They both boarded and made their way on foot, walking together to their respective rooms, Azula in front on foot this time. Steven decided to make a little light-hearted remark, “Welcome to our new homes for the week.”

Azula, being in a more friendly mood that day, returned this sentiment, “Home sweet home,” which was still said in her coy manner as they both entered rooms not too far from one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably one of my more weaker chapters in the work so far, but I still hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> This and the next chapter are leading up to a big chapter 7 which has over 5000 words in the first draft. 
> 
> as always :) feel free to give me pointers and point out errors :)  
> Thank you for reading.


	6. Counter Play and Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven tries working on Azula, much like she had been working on him, on the boat trip to the island. His efforts are put on hold however, when a familiar messenger comes requiring his assistance once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this chapter being later than usual, I hope the chapter is enjoyable.

In the first two days of sail, Steven noted that Azula kept mostly to herself, or to her training on the main deck of the ship. She didn’t really interact with others at breakfast, lunch, or evening meals, or even in general for that matter, she had only done the occasional power play involving Steven though the days of sailing. Steven wanted to put a stop to seeming self-isolation, not because he wanted more challenges from Azula, he was thankful they had dimmed down for the trip, but because he wanted her to be included like he was about 2 weeks ago. Once he received his evening meal, he got Azula’s to deliver to her, and made his way to her room.

He knocked on the door. “I brought food!” He called through the door. He waited a moment for a response, he was sure she was in there but maybe she wasn’t. his doubts were answered however when he heard her call back to him.

“You may come in,” and that he did, entering through the door to her much more spacious room, compared to his.

“May I sit?” he asked her, smiling. There was a confused look on Azula, she didn’t expect this, but she didn’t expect him to be the one to bring her food either. With a nod she let him sit on the floor. Azula looked at her plate rich with meats, compared to Steven’s that just had a small portion of salad. Steven noticed her looking and decided to explain, even if she wasn’t going to ask, “I don’t eat meat, so I just got the sides.”

A while passed before she asked, “Why are you sitting with me?” Azula couldn’t understand any possible reason, especially after how their dynamic changed.

“You let me.” Steven teased as a response, smiling again.

“Why are you wanting to sit with me?” She rephrased, pretending the previous two lines of dialogue didn’t exist for both their sakes.

Steven took a moment in thought, before being honest. “If it were me, Id just feel a bit lonely. Before I came here, I was alone for a lot of meals,” he said thinking of his independent journey, but then adding, “even in some of my childhood now that I think about it.”

“You may leave now, Steven.” Azula said with her neutral expression. Steven was about to speak back, but simply shrugged and picked up his tray. He gave her one last look as he left her room. He sighed as he went to his own room to finish off his meal.

* * *

Azula wasn’t happy, Steven empathized with her, but to Azula, it was him feeling pity. Azula thought that if someone felt pity for anyone, it was like they were above the person they pitied, as such, Azula found that interaction unpleasant.

This was a trip, but that didn’t mean that she should let up on changing Steven, she would try harder in the subsequent days.

* * *

Steven didn’t know what had got Azula the wrong way. He knew he must have done something, but he didn’t know what. She had spent the morning running him around like an errand boy, not a guard. He finally got a break for lunch, and after when she started her fire bending training, and this time he isolated himself to his room, he didn’t want any more wrath of Azula today. It was going to be a stupid idea, but he was going to try again for evening meal small talk.

For the rest of the day he avoided Azula, he figured no more errands if he weren’t around to be given them, out of sight out of mind. This worked surprisingly, maybe a waste of Azula’s effort to seek him out, but like he planned earlier, he was going to seek her.

He did the same thing as the previous evening, got the meal, knocked on the door. “I brought food,” He said less enthusiastically this time.

“You may come in,” Azula responded, it all being a repeat of yesterday so far.

“May I sit, Princess” he asked, more politely this time and with the same smile.

“No.” She said simply, Steven frowned as he heard this, it was not what he was expecting. He studied her face, only half wearing the usual smirk, the other half being discontent.

“May I stand then?” Steven asked instead, in which the follow up question had Azula now frowning, but her frown being one of slight confusion. Surprisingly, she relented, it may have been the fact it might have been comical to watch someone stand for their whole meal, but it might have been the persistence that wasn’t expected.

“After yesterday, why did you come again?” She asked, ignoring the events earlier that day in the question though she knew it would have been a factor. The question was asked in such a way that she dared him to give the same response as the day before.

This time, Steven took the hint and answered differently, though it was implied that the point of yesterday was still valid, “I just felt like it, I wanted company and I wasn’t in the mood for a crowd this evening.”

“And the company you expected, was that of the princess?” Azula had known his response was a lie and choosing her company even if that was the reason, after she made Steven an errand boy, was a stretch.

Steven swallowed his pride and decided to do something different, slightly back tracking the conversation. “I am sorry, Princess, please let me eat in your presence.” Azula had half a mind to rebut this, but seeing how he had lowered himself in pride and submitted a bit to her, she decided to let it slide as she ate her meal.

The two ate in silence, Steven standing as he ate, still, and Azula eating sat down at the desk in the room. After Stevens small portion was finished, he decided to break the silence. “So, why do you eat in here and not out there?” he asked, still holding his tray, slightly forgetting his position after the latest exchange.

“Why is a guard curious about their employers eating habits?” she responded coyly

“Can a noble guard not know about the princess?” he coyly asked back, matching her tone.

“Not if said princess won’t give answers.” She said less smug this time, and as such, the conversation stopped.

Steven left on his own terms that evening, not long after the conversation ended, but a happier result compared to the previous day. He headed to his own room, not too far from hers, and went in. He hoped that the next morning would be better than this one because of the conversation.

* * *

The morning was a better one, he didn’t have a bad interaction with Azula in the morning, it seemed she was back to leaving him alone for the trip, only sure to continue when they got back. They were arriving at crescent island in the afternoon, it was estimated that it would be after Azula’s fire bending training, so no evening meal talk time today, while it still could be done, Steven suspected that Azula would want to get started straight away on whatever business she had here, which he had decided not to think about. Instead, he would try for a lunchtime talk today with her.

So when the time came, Steven got his and Azula’s meal, headed her way, only to be met with her at her door this time, as she was about to go in. It was something unspoken this time, they both assumed the previous days positions and settled into their spots for consuming food. Steven felt like it was nice.

While he planned for a chat, it never really came to it, Azula looked perplexed that this was happening for a third time, curiosity of what he was going to talk about this time, but nothing. He just came to eat his meal with her.

* * *

She felt like he was pitying him again, which she didn’t like, but at the same time, he chose here over socializing with his peers, which felt confusing to her; he didn’t need to be here, he wasn’t asked to be here, he just chose to be here, which Azula didn’t understand. He had given unsatisfactory answers the previous two days, and she didn’t understand those answers, so it was another day of not understanding why here and not in the dining hall.

Part of her knew it wasn’t just pity if he was doing it more than day one, much less day two. The pity, the feeling of being higher than her, should have been snuffed out when she made it her mission to make him the errand boy for the previous day and further snuffed out in him lowering his pride. She was back in power, so it can’t have been fully pity. It was something Azula was going to think more on.

* * *

Once again, Steven left on his own terms, not overstaying his welcome, but not cutting it short either. He, like the previous day, retreated to his room to wait for the ship to arrive at crescent island. Thinking about the last few days as he entered his room, made Steven smile to himself, proud of the small progress he made. If he could get Azula to last a few minutes without barking orders or playing mind games, it was a small step in the right direction.

Steven walked up to and then laid on the bed, just relaxing and waiting for the arrival. He closed his eyes wistfully. Deciding he didn’t want a nap, he opened them again to stop himself from going to sleep, but it was too late.

He looked around, and once again it was the dull brown mindscape. It might not have initially been how he wanted to spend his afternoon, but when there he decided that he would make the best of it. After only moments of waiting, as if on que, Roku appeared before him. Steven was about to speak, to relay and talk about his progress, both blunders and successes, but Roku beat him to the first word. “Steven? You are going back to Crescent Island?” he sounded surprised but changed the tone of conversation. “It’s good that you are here, actually, I would like help of something else this time.”

Steven decided his update could wait, and just nodded so Roku could continue, “Steven, Aang isn’t at the stage where he can talk to me freely, because of this, I have invited him to my temple’s room so tomorrow we can converse,” Roku explained “I don’t need to tell you that this task is dangerous for him.”

“Yeah, Azula herself, was lost in thought for a while after word got back that The Avatar had returned. She wasn’t necessarily happy when she was in thought,” He confessed, looking back to Roku to share a moment of slight dread.

“Yes, this is where my request to you becomes important, I have to tell Aang about Sozin’s comet, and I would like you to help get him there,” Steven looked at him with unease, upon seeing this Roku added “All I ask, is that you help as you deem necessary, if you think an action will affect the first task I have given to you, you need not act. Do what you can Steven, I only ask of this because it is important that Aang knows what is to come.”

Steven ponders this for a bit, he definitely didn’t want to do anything that would get him in Azula’s bad books again, so he will have to be subtle, but he will definitely try to help in this second task given to him. “Ok, I will try and help,”

Roku gave him a grateful look, “Thank you, Steven,” was all Roku said as Steven was pulled back down to his body as the ship pulled up to the island. Steven opened his eyes with a jolt and sat up. ‘Ok new temporary task, time to make a plan’ he thought.

His first idea would be to subtly test the sage’s loyalty. Given the response he got last time, he was sure that the head sage was loyal to the Fire Lord, so he only had to ask the other four. His next thought was to wear his normal clothes the next day, in uniform, the young Avatar might distrust him, normal clothes, maybe had a chance at conversation and eventually help.

First things first, finding potential extra help, before making any more plans, he needed to see if there was anyone else willing to aid. While the ship made arrangements for staying, Azula keeping to herself, and the afternoon ended.

Steven made his way off the ship, back onto the first piece of land he had contact with in this new world. He took it in for a moment before walking along the walkway up to the temple. The sages were there to greet whoever visited, but as soon as Steven came through the door, their expressions stiffened. It wasn’t as though they simply disliked him, but his last visit made them suspicious and stressed, a feeling that still remained in them upon seeing him.

Because they weren’t overly happy to see him, the sages subtly dispersed one after the other when Steven had walked over to begin conversation with one of them, which was an advantage for Steven, as he wanted to talk one on one anyway.

He went to ask the first sage, Steven being known from last time as an outsider meant he could as questions from a neutral standpoint, therefore coming across as naïve rather than accusatory. His question was “So you fire sages, now that the Avatar is back does that mean your neutral again?” It was met with a no, and some talk about how the avatar betrayed the world.

He went to ask the second. Changing the question to “How do you feel about The Avatar returning?” this question was met with apathy, and a response along the lines of the fire nation treats them well and with respect, and so didn’t need to serve anyone else, especially a losing side.

He got to the third. Opting for the second question he asked because it sounded less accusatory. He might have got the response he was looking for, as it was met with sadness. The sage only explained that he was just sad things had changed. Steven decided to press for more, “I think it’s a good thing actually, I might be working for the fire nation, but I hope that the world will be in balance again.” The sage paused, looked at Steven cautiously. Steven wearing a smile earnestly told the sage that it wasn’t a trick.

“That would be nice,” the sage smiled as he agreed. He wasn’t sure why he was revealing his thoughts on world politics, but he found himself doing just that to the boy called Steven.

Steven held his own gaze of concern, before asking, “Will you help me, help The Avatar, tomorrow?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the chapter and thank you if you are reading the notes 
> 
> Reason for the lateness is that I'm slightly struggling with chapter 8, a bit of pressure was relieved when a few commenters made the observation that Steven isn't really going to fear Azula. So a bit of spoilers for chapter 8 so keep reading this paragraph if you don't mind them is that I'm writing her changing tactic. I think I have done an ok job and made it believable as far as her character is concerned. I just hope that when others read it, it works. 
> 
> Another reason is I'm focusing on job hunting, teaching jobs are turning up thinner than usual for Maths so that is where more of my attention is going also. Fingers crossed I get one. 
> 
> Thank you for the continued support, and as always, feel free to point out errors or mistakes. 
> 
> P.S. The Gaang appears in the next chapter.


	7. The Island, The Princess, and The Sudden Appearance of The Avatar…s?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day doesn't go as planned with extra guests coming to fan the flames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I reached 1000 Hits :D I am so happy that my first fan fiction has done this well. Thank you for all the hits, kudos, comments and bookmarks. I really appreciate every single one. 
> 
> I want to thank @asunamisa, @Knowall and @Wishflare for being consistent commenters so far, really helps me keep going with it :D
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, I had fun working on this one.

Steven spent the first part of the morning going over the plan, the day was going to go well. Steven had a fire sage on his side. The name of the sage was Shyu and he had told Steven about the structure of the temple, the secret passages, and that the room that Roku had planned to talk to Aang in. Getting to the room would be the easy part, getting into the room was going to be the hardest bit, the door to the room needed five blasts, one from each fire sage, or at least one fire blast from five fire benders.

The door was closed since the ship had got there, it was left open usually, due to it being more respectful, but, with it being considered sacred, while guests were on the island, they decided to close it up so nothing got potentially tampered with. They couldn’t really plan for that bit, it was a ‘Cross that bridge when we come to it’ sort of step, but because it wasn’t planned through it left a bit of unease in the air, but there was nothing they could do about it.

The basic plan was this, Steven patrols the inner curve of the island, making it easier to spot Aang coming from the east, then, he is brought to Shyu, and using knowledge of the passages, shall get him to the room. Stevens job then is to run interference or distraction for the other sages while Aang is in there.

His thoughts were brought to a close when there was a knock on his door. “Come in,” he said, sitting up on his bed, inviting whoever knocked inside.

* * *

Azula had spent the first part of her morning interviewing each sage about Steven. Getting first-hand their events of the day Steven had arrived on that island. It was mostly the same as that were sent, apart form extra details here and there that didn’t end up in writing. She asked in an order that put the sage that saw Steven presumably fall last, so she could spend most of her time and effort on that individual.

“So, you are saying that you saw something fall onto fire nation territory in the middle of the night.” Azula had said after getting a brief version of events form the last sage.

“Yes, princess, I saw something just as I put out my lantern for the night.” The sage, under the pressure from Azula, meekly said. Truthfully, the sage was baffled by the event of Azula being there, he thought that everything could have been done via message, or at least extra messages for extra details she needed.

Azula however, wanted to be there in person for a couple of details, she wanted to see the crater that she had not yet seen as of questioning, and her personal judgement on if it was a lie or not. “Why did you leave it until the morning to investigate,” She said coldly, “what if it had been an attack on fire nation land?”

“Forgive me, princess, it was because the shape had looked like that of a person, I simply thought it was my mind playing tricks on me.” He bowed for forgiveness.

This response made sense to Azula, if the shape had been too small to worry about, and looked like a teenager at that, then she would have possibly assumed the same, but she had one more question. “Why bother checking on it in the morning if you though it was a trick of the mind?”

This was simply answered by the sage, “I saw that there was an indentation into the island from afar, and that there was something pink in the center, the boy’s jacket, but I didn’t know that at the time. It’s because of that, that I got the rest of the sages to investigate.”

Azula was satisfied with this, she could tell from the slight trembling she could hear in the voice, that he was telling the truth. Ok, she was satisfied, now that she was certain that the sage was telling the truth, it was time to see the sight itself. The question was, should she bring Steven.

She ultimately decided that she should, as he himself would be the best shape reference for something he made. She walked back to the ship to get the person in question. She knocked on the door. “Come in,” was heard from the other side, good, he was still in. She opened the door. 

* * *

Azula came into Stevens room, he wasn’t expecting this, he was expecting her to attend to whatever business she had for the rest of the day. “I need you, come with me” she ordered. Steven panicked slightly thinking this could be yet another mind game or power play but decided to follow the order anyway.

As they were walking out to the side of the island, Steven decided to speak, “So what do you need me for... Princess” he quickly added on the end remembering etiquette.

“I need you to help me inspect something,” Azula casually responded as they walked. They got to the place where Steven woke up all those days ago. “Well, here we are,” she said coyly, “remind me, how did you say you got here again?”

Steven gulped. “Erm…” he said for a moment of recollection, “I was dropped off, by someone.” He said as he struggled to recall his exact wording. Azula had made her way down to the center of the crater.

“This is where the fire sages found you, what did you say you were doing here again?” Azula asked thoughtfully as she looked at the shape in the center. She then turned to look at Steven for his response.

“I didn’t say.” Steven responded, he was more sure of this response, his waking up had been out of his mind for ages, so now that it was brought up, he could say he hadn’t thought about it, so no responses. But he decided to continue and come up with something believable as Azula was going to ask him regardless. “I thought there could be something interesting at the bottom once I saw this, so I decided to have a look.” This was the most believable answer he could come up with.

“Something interesting indeed,” Azula said, knowingly. “Well I have what I came for, you have the afternoon off.” Azula climbed back up out of the dent in the island, and quickly and efficiently wiped herself off.

‘The afternoon off? Really?’ Was all Steven could think at that moment, “Why, Princess.”

“Are you really questioning getting time off?” She said smugly, “Well, if you want, you can always follow me around all day.”

“No, no, that’s not needed,” Steven said quickly as Azula smirked at him falling for her tease, “thank you for the day off.” With that, Steven and Azula walked back to the boat.

* * *

Azula was pleased with her morning’s exploits, she got what she needed, heard what she needed, and saw what she needed. Steven had definitely appeared by falling, and lived. He had to have come from a height, backed up by the sage’s testimony, and fallen directly onto the island. He had arrived the same time The Avatar came back. He had a connection, but the next question to her was what. What was the connection between The Avatar named Aang, and the mysterious teen named Steven?

She complied what she knew about Steven and that was relevant. He makes shields, he can fall from great heights and come from it unscathed, he can’t perform any bending. What about that linked him to the master of all four elements, and why was there a connection in the first place?

* * *

Steven was glad he got the day off; he was happy that he could spend his full attention on the plan for the rest of the day. He spent most of the rest of the day walking along the inner arc of the island, looking out and waiting for something. He didn’t know what Aang would arrive on; Ship? Through the air? Maybe the patrol was useless, and he might just pop out of the ground. At this point, he just wished that with either talks with Roku, he had asked more about the current avatar. He had assumed air, as this was Aang’s origin element, so through the air seemed most likely, but he wasn’t sure at this point.

After a few more lengths of patrolling and slight anxiety, he saw something in the air, ‘That’s him!’ he exclaimed in his mind, and rushed over with his self-controlled diamond powered speed, right past the ship, to where they were landing. As he was heading over, he saw that it was a big white fluffy animal with people on top of it, though as it flying through the air, he reckoned he was right in his initial assumption of it being The Avatar. When he got close, he decided to walk normally as to come off less threatening. As he got closer, he had begun to hear speaking.

“We had better be careful, fire nation ships are always trouble.” Steven heard a girl say.

“Who are we kidding, the fire nation’s trouble!” a guy then replied to her.

“But we did get in, hard bit’s over right, nice flying buddy.” Steven then heard a younger guy say, giving the conversation are more optimistic attitude. A roar was then heard in reply to what the younger boy said.

“oh, you must be tired,” the girl said sympathetically to the beast. It was at that point that Steven decided to make his presence known, he didn’t know how to start the interaction, but opted for something that would get straight to the point.

“Hey, I mean no harm, which one of you is Aang?” Steven said as he came around the corner, but after seeing the group, he was sure that it was the younger guy, closer to being twelve, but glad he asked out of courtesy.

The older teen sighed, “What was the point in coming all the way to the end of the island if we were going to get spotted straight away.” He said as the he got on guard. Steven immediately penned him as the pessimist of the group.

Steven was about to interject when the presumed Aang did it for him, “he doesn’t look like fire nation,” Steven was immediately glad he wore his normal clothes for the interaction, “I am Aang, are you the keeper of the temple”

Steven replied, “Well technically I’m with the fire nation… currently” Everyone, tensed up at this, “but believe me when I say I’m on your side. You are here to speak to Roku, right? I can help you get there.”

There was now an air of skepticism in the group. After an exchange of looks between the three of them, the female decided to ask, “How did you know that’s what we are here to do?” Steven pegged her as the level-headed one of the group.

“A friend told me, and it would be more believable coming from him. I came here to warn you,” Steven said changing the subject slightly, as he didn’t think his answer to the previous question was believable in the slightest; he wasn’t going to take the chance, even if The Avatar was the one that he was speaking to. “As you could probably see, there is more fire nation here than usual, and most of the sages can’t be trusted. Most of the ship’s crew is actually in the ship but some are in the temple and the sages themselves won’t be happy that you are here.”

“You said most, is there at least one we can trust?” The girl spoke again, seeming to speak for the rest of them at this point.

“Yes, actually, his name is Shyu, and he is the only one that shares my belief that the fire nation’s unbalance is bad,” Steven said slightly quicker now. “We should get going as soon as possible, Do you trust me?” He directed this question at Aang himself, even if the girl was speaking for him at this point.

Aang had looked to his group, the male dressed in blue was about to shake his head but then stopped to think for a second, while the female dressed in blue was neutral. Aang looked at the male again and based on the sole fact he wasn’t fully in denial of this, Aang decided to reply, “Ok, we will trust you.”

With Steven in the lead, they stared walking to the temple. The big animal, that Steven had since found out was called Appa, was left behind for stealth reasons, the other animal, Momo, was brought along. The other human members of the group were, Sokka, the older guy, and Katara, the sibling of the former. Introductions were exchanged on the way, but as they neared the destination, the topic got back onto a more serious tone.

“Someone you really have to watch out for is Azula, princess of the fire nation.” At this piece of information Steven gave, there was a collective groan. “What’s wrong?” Steven decided to ask in response to this.

“We are already being chased by a ‘Prince of the fire nation.’ We now have to look out for a princess too?” Sokka sarcastically questioned.

“Prince Zuko has done nothing but chase us ever since we found Aang,” Katara offered as explanation.

Steven wore a grim face and just simply said, “Oh, I see.” It was a reminder to him that he had more than one currently difficult person to save. He needed to try and help Zuko also. He couldn’t at the moment though, Azula was no where close to a breakthrough, and she was the one in more urgent need of help. He would just have to hope and pray that Zuko would be fine for now. As fine as he could be at least.

With his thoughts coming to an end, they were close enough for Steven to go get Shyu, so that he could take over escorting the group. Steven brought him back to the temporary hiding space and Steven quickly introduced them all to each other. Steven helped escort them as far as the temple in a rush before breaking off when they got to a secret passage throughout the temple. The last thing he heard before the door closed was that of Shyu talking about how before Roku Island, he called the temple his home.

It was now time for Steven to run distraction, with Azula seemingly on the ship, he would just have to stop the fire sages getting to the top floor. He walked along the corridors trying to locate the position of each fire sage, usually there was no need for the sages to be on the higher floors other than maintenance, but he couldn’t be too careful.

Steven decided, after searching for positions of sages for a while, to instead stay and patrol around the higher floors. If he met a sage that could potentially be heading up, he would put distractions into action. He walked around the top floors when suddenly he heard an explosion from above. Fearing the worst, he ascended the stairs to see what had happened.

“Urgh, Why. Wont. It. Open,” could be heard from down the stairs Steven was climbing.

“What happened, is everyone alright?” Steven said as soon as he came into the room. He looked around to see that everyone was fine, no one in need of healing, and he relaxed a bit. From the looks of things, the only thing that needed fixing was the door that seemed to now have horrible scorch marks around, where the fire blasts were meant to be shot. 

“We are fine, but my pride isn’t,” Sokka spoke quietly as he walked over to the door.

Shyu interjected “The plan we had to get through the door, didn’t work.” Everyone at this entered the same somber mood that Sokka seemed to be in.

Aang spoke up this time, “I’m sorry I put you though all this for nothing,” continuing to add to the mood of the room, juxtaposed to how he originally was when Steven had earlier over head him.

Sokka, wiping his finger on the scorch marks, wondered out loud, “I don’t get it, the blast looked as strong as any fire bending I’ve seen.”

Katara paused for a bit before lighting up with an idea, “Sokka, you’re a genius!” She spoke with slight excitement heard in her voice.

Aang’s voice however had a tone of confusion, “Wait, how is Sokka a genius? His plan didn’t even work.”

“Could have fooled me, to be honest,” Steven added, defending the plan. It was a minor addition to the conversation but it’s what Katara needed to hear.

“Exactly!” She exclaimed, seeing if anyone else was seeing the logic behind her thoughts yet. There was a collective ‘Huh?’ look before she explained. “You are right, Aang. Sokka’s plan didn’t work, but to anyone else,” she gestured over to Steven, “it looks like it did.”

“Did the definition of genius change within the last one hundred years?” Aang asked quizzically as Katara gained a smug look with the new plan forming in her head.

“Shyu, go get the other fire sages, and say that someone got into the sanctuary,” She smiled as she ordered, coordinating her plan, “Steven, your part is the old plan, but go interfere with the fire nation princess, instead of the sages” Steven nodded, confirming his new/old part to play, “Aang,” She said now addressing him, “you will need to get ready to slip in, and Sokka and I will be running interference when the door is open for you get in.”

With new roles assigned everyone got in position as Steven and Shyu descended the stairs. They broke off from one another, Steven heading for the entrance of the temple so he could go to the ship. He got out of the temple as quickly as he could, as he then made his way down with the intention of playing distraction, he rushed down and passed a soldier. He paused. A soldier heading up to the temple. At first glance, it seemed he was wearing the fire nation navy uniform and the required helmet, but a closer look to the uniform noted it was slightly different in places.

It came across as rude out of panic but Steven had to ask, “Wait, where are you going?” Steven stopped in his path to the ship.

“I,” there was a momentary pause, “have orders, to go up to the temple.”

Steven had missed the pause, and inwardly groaned “Azula, sorry, Princess Azula wants you at the temple?” Steven missed the slight flinch this soldier gave, and gave a sigh, “Come with me, I was just going to her, I think she wanted everyone on the ship soon for departure.”

The lie was weak, and the person before him saw through it, “I have just been given the orders, I will be going now.” The soldier continued to walk up the stairs to the temple. As Steven watched him, he hesitated for a moment and decided to continue down to the ship, he silently apologized in his head to everyone upstairs before he continued to the ship.

Steven couldn’t help but feel the interaction was strange, the navy soldier felt like a stranger, granted he had missed out on socializing with the crew for three meals, but this one acted with no familiarity to him, and Steven didn’t recognize the voice either. As he neared Azula’s room, the mystery would be solved.

A different soldier was there. While on duty the soldiers wore helmets, this was exempt in off time or mealtime, but a day where they were on the sage’s island meant that all soldiers should be on duty. The soldier that was there didn’t have his helmet on. This could have been excused as he was on the ship, but he was in front of Azula, which would usually require fire nation navy representing themselves to the fullest.

But it didn’t seem like he was being punished when Steven entered. The expression the soldier wore was that of concern, but not from the wrath of Azula, but from something else. “What’s going on?” Steven asked, his curious nature getting the best of him.

“This soldier was ambushed, and his helmet was taken,” Azula said bluntly. “This happened not too long ago and the assailants face wasn’t seen.” She continued and explained to Steven. It was just then when a soldier burst into the door with another bit of information.

“Your highness, more fire navy ships have turned up, unannounced.” The new solider said quickly, almost as if trying to relay the information as fast as possible. This information seemed to have intrigued Azula even more than the mystery ambusher, unannounced ships. This would have meant it wasn’t anyone from the homeland, as they would have sent word ahead out of courtesy, this was a different ship with quick business here at the same time as her.

The group of four exited the room, to the main deck of the ship, where they saw a group heading up from the other ships, led by a man with sideburns. At this, the decision Azula made wouldn’t have been anything other than what she had said next, “Well, its time for a reunion.” She said knowingly, as she recognized the man in the front.

* * *

Azula had pieced a few things together in her head, she recognized the man in front as commander Zhao. The task Zhao had been keen on completing was Avatar related. Upon seeing him she had remembered the significance of the date, The Winter Solstice, and the place Zhao happened to be, not unlike her, was Avatar related. Which meant that The Avatar could be here now, which also meant that the mystery assailant was…

“Well, it’s time for a reunion.” She said as she then started walking off the ship to the island. “You three, come along” She added, instructing Steven, who was about to object to her going, and the two soldiers, to give her presence more weight. The soldiers nodded, and simply started following her up, Steven gained a look of panic and rushed to be beside Azula.

“Don’t you think this many people is overkill?” He said gently, “We could just let the others handle it, there seems to be more than enough people to sort this out anyway.” His expression was clear enough to give away that he might know something Azula didn’t.

“Why would I not go? There are some people I want to meet, if I’m right.” Azula responded, she gave her reason and expected it to stick, but it apparently was still met with some resistance.

“Why waste your energy, Princess?” Steven tried to add, trying to make her not go, which if Azula was honest, only made her want to go more.

“You are transparent, Steven,” She said coyly, “its almost as if there is a reason you don’t want me to go.” The response to this was tight lips from Steven. He was silent for the rest of the trip, following the in front soldiers led by Zhao, up to the top of the temple. They were following at a sort of distance, not enough to alert the group in front to their presence, not that it would have mattered, but close enough to follow the exact route they took to the top.

Azula dropped back a bit when they neared the clearing at the top, walking slower now, interested by the conversation that could faintly be heard, the first part missed out because of the distance. “….. performance. I’m certain the Fire Lord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him.” The speaker was Zhao, she gathered that much, what interested her was who was he talking to, who dared even think to betray the great nation.

“Commander Zhao,” was heard next, one of the sages, recognizing the voice from her interviews that day. The next line of dialog, by Zhao, confirmed what she suspected.

“And, Prince Zuko, it was a noble effort, but your smoke screen didn’t work. Two traitors in one day, the Fire Lord will be pleased.” Zhao’s voice was plainly condescending, something that Azula assumed was regular when he talked to her brother. Her slow stroll came to a stop at this point when her brother replied.

“You’re too late, Zhao,” the voice being clearly Zuko’s as she turned the corner, “The Avatar’s inside and the doors are sealed.” He had finished speaking when he then recognized Azula as she drew near.

“No matter, sooner or later, he has to come out.” Was said by Zhao, the only one that had yet to see her. It was then when Azula decided to join in the conversation.

“Well isn’t this a party,” She said mockingly, as everyone who wasn’t facing her direction, did just that, “and, Zuzu, long time no see. Captured The Avatar yet?” She asked, rhetorically as she looked at him restrained before her, “no, of course not, even now he is back, it’s clear you struggle.”

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Steven wince at her attitude towards Zuko, but she paid it no mind. What she did notice however within her introductory speech, was a look if recognition and confusion from the two dressed in blue, tied to a pillar, that they gave Steven. She also noticed that upon Steven seeing them, he tried to give an evidently apologetic look. She would get the information out of him later. 

“So, The Avatar is in there.” She said, phrased like a question but with tone of a statement she knew was true. With a look around the room for obvious confirmation, she spoke, “Everyone, get ready, today we capture The Avatar.” A look of panic were given from all who were captured. The sage that she assumed had betrayed them, to help the Avatar; the two companions in blue, that seemed to have come with The Avatar; Zuko, who needed to capture The Avatar to come home; and … . The last one that seemed to have the same look of panic was Steven, while she should have expected it at this point, it strangely slightly surprised her that he would wear this look. Again, questioning for later.

Azula took a step back, letting Zhao step in, almost as if it had been rehearsed. She looked to Zhao to let him continue as she took a new backseat to the operation letting her underlings do the rest for her. Zhao, getting eager after her pep talk, was happy to continue, “When those doors open, unleash all your fire power!” Zhao had been in her good graces for trying to capture the air nomad so far, and she could appreciate the go-getter attitude he presented in ordering around the navy.

“How’s Aang going to make it out of this?” the girl in blue stated, unease presented in her manner of speaking.

“How are we going to make it out of this?” The boy in blue retorted, similar unease plastered on his tone also.

After the brief exchange between the two prisoners, a few moments of silence echoed through the room. The atmosphere was tense. Just waiting, for something, for anything to happen. Suddenly something did. The door everyone was so focused on, glowed a light blue, and started opening. Steam seemed to erupt from underneath, breaking concentration of everyone mesmerized by it. The light being so bright that a few looked away.

In unison, Zhao and Azula, commanded “Ready…” as the door opened further to reveal some glowing eyes, higher than what Azula had expected the young avatar to be.

The girl peasant in blue had shouted to the door in warning, “No! Aang!” with the boy struggling harder next to her.

In unison once again, Azula and Zhao both commanded “Fire!” With this, every able soldier shot a fire blast into the entrance of the door. The fire however then seemed to move unnaturally, contorting into a sphere around the figure, that was then seen to have not been a young boy, but an old man.

“Avatar Roku” was said by two individuals, the first being the sage that was tied up. The sages’ tone was one of surprise. The other being Steven, whose tone was more that of confusion than that of surprise, though the surprise was still evident.

The fire that had been swirling around Roku turned into a wave of flame, as the fire was sent outward, some even being knocked over by the blast. The prisoners’ chains were dissolved within the same blast, and with that, Azula saw Zuko take the chance and leave to the nearest exit, escaping. She could have gone after him but there was a bigger fish in her eyes. The marvel of that was in front of her.

Her plan of capturing The Avatar seemed to be falling apart as the events went on, with a menacing glance from the blue tinted old Avatar, everyone seemed to let fear take over and bolted it for the exit, like Zuko had done before them, suddenly there was only a few left at the top. Azula herself, Steven, the prisoners in blue, and the traitor sage, who seemed to have something to tell the two former. “Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple. We have to get out of here!”

The prisoners in blue seemed defiant at this with the girl saying, “Not without Aang!” With a moment of debate, the sage nodded and left the two there, along with Steven and Azula. Steven, had then gone over to them both to say something she didn’t quite hear. With a brief exchange he came back to her.

“Time to take our leave,” Steven said as he grabbed her. She was about to complain but before she knew it, she was over his shoulder. “Hang on tight” was what he last said before running towards the newly made hole in the wall and jumping out of it.

Azula didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t what happened next. She expect to plummet alongside Steven into the ground bellow, like some action of taking them both out, but when she barely felt the wind against her face like she expected due to falling, she then decided to fully observe what was happening; they were falling, but slowly. Steven didn’t look as perplexed as her as he casually looked back to see the temple erupting with magma, luckily no magma headed their way. To Azula, Steven seemed to be looking out for something as he looked towards the tower as it was collapsing, his look became lighter as he saw two objects flying towards them. With them getting closer Azula made out that they were animals flying towards the burning tower.

A group of three jumped out of the hole she and Steven had leapt out of, and they got on the larger animal. The group had the two ex-prisoners in blue, but instead of the expected Roku, was now a boy that matched the descriptions from reports of what The Avatar was meant to look like. As the group flew passed the two suspended in mid-air, Steven exchanged looks with them before they were out of sight.

The events that transpired when they jumped out of the hole had Azula speechless. She didn’t know what to think, she would have never thought falling slowly would have been on the agenda for the day. By the time they got to safe ground, Azula regained herself. “Put me down.” She ordered.

Steven sighed and lifted her off his shoulder with seeming ease and placed her standing up. Azula looked at him with disdain, she took a moment before ordering, “Wait in my room for me to come back, we are going to have a little talk. I have some new business to attend to first.”

And with that, she made her way to Zhao’s ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the chapter 
> 
> I want to thank everyone again for the engagement this has got, I didn't think I would get this far.
> 
> once again, feel free to give advice and point out errors.


	8. Change of Tactics and False Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azula realizes that fear isn't working, its time for something else to be done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone,   
> sorry about the lateness of the chapter, both myself and my beta reader have been busy.
> 
> I hope you like the chapter.

Incompetent, the only thing Azula could call the display she witnessed, with fire nation fleeing from a dead man with glowing eyes. While others wouldn’t have blamed them, as versing The Avatar, and one that had mastered all the elements at that, was frightening in that state, Azula could. To her, they had no pride and fled, the only ones that stayed were The Avatar’s companions, herself, and Steven.

The Avatar’s friends stayed out of loyalty and for his well-being, she could begrudgingly respect that. She stayed because, with help, she was sure he could have been apprehended, and she was sure that in that situation, without the flying animal, it could have been done. Her mind then drifted to Steven, why did he stay? Was it for her, or was it because of the connection he seemingly had with The Avatar? The answer to that question would have to wait until she got back, she was to deal with the soldiers that ran away first.

She boarded the ship with purpose and headed straight for the deck where she could see Zhao scolding the sages. “No Prince, no Avatar. Apparently, the only thing I do have is five traitors.”

Before the head sage with his hat missing could reply, Azula did it for him, “Five traitors? From what I gathered it was one traitor with four incompetent sages.” She said casually, she might have gone along with the exaggeration if she didn’t have a bone to pick with Zhao himself, and she could use this as ammunition.

With a surprised look, Zhao turned around to face her as she continued, “Trying to make this out to be more of an accomplishment, compared to the loss of The Avatar? A bit of a stretch don’t you think.” She said coldly. “We could have had him,” she paused to look at everyone present with distaste, “but everyone was quick to flee, is that how an army backs up its princess?” There was a pause as she stared everyone down. “Now, Zhao,” She turned towards him, “I was actually working on getting you a higher rank, given your efforts so far. Are my efforts misplaced?” 

It took a moment for Zhao to get recomposed, “No, Princess Azula,” the commander said through gritted teeth, but Azula shot him a look, and he got to a more calm demeanour, “they are not.” He relented.

“Good, then I expect, in future, that when The Avatar is right in front of you, you finish the job.” Azula replied with conviction. While Azula came across in her more stern demeanour, she was feeling more frustrated than she was letting on underneath. She realised it was because she failed by proxy again. She probably wouldn’t have minded if the opposition had been hindered in some way, getting a small victory as a consolation prize, but there was no consequences to the opposition.

With her feeling like she put everyone, including the prideful Zhao, in place, she made her way back to her own ship, she had questions she needed answering.

* * *

Steven waited and paced back and forth within Azula’s room. He felt like he failed yet again. His position of being the distraction for everyone who wasn’t a sage, especially Princess Azula, didn’t get fulfilled properly. He felt like everyone seemed to turn up at the top of the temple, he couldn’t help blaming himself, even if it was outside his control.

The most he could do to apologise was shoot the water tribe siblings a look of apology. He wasn’t sure if they received it well, he couldn’t tell; he tried to make amends and test how they felt by asking them if they wanted a lift down, including the young avatar, but the two refused. It was perhaps out of distrust, or that he would be carrying down both them and Azula, which left the question what happened when they all got down to the bottom.

Something positive Steven could take away though, was the look he exchanged with Aang, while he couldn’t get a read on Sokka or Katara, the look Aang gave Steven was a mix of gratitude, intrigue and knowing. He could only guess that Roku told Aang some information and context about him, but regardless, the brief few seconds of exchange was positive.

His mind then drifted to now, he was asked to be sent to Azula’s room and wait. He sighed; he could only assume it was how he carried her down. But what were the other options, he thought bridal carry was too personal for them, piggyback seemed too juvenile for Azula, he thought that putting her over his shoulder was the most redeemable one, even if it was slightly degrading.

He could spend all day thinking about this, but instead he decided to think about home and happy thoughts while he waited for Azula to come back. It was however interrupted before it even began, the door to Azula’s quarters was opened by Azula herself which stopped Steven in his tracks out of surprise. Her was face as stoic as ever, but on the more angry end of her neutral variants.

There was a long pause after the door had closed, just himself and Azula, looking at each other, Steven being more startled at the suddenness of her entry, and Azula taking a bit of time to inwardly cool off before she got down to business.

Steven was the first to speak, he didn’t care if this was another test of pride, he just broke the silence, “Are you ok?” There was no reaction from Azula, she just kept looking in his general direction before she spoke, disregarding what he just said.

“You can make shields, and you can control your descent without manipulating the air around you,” it was a statement that indicated she had a question or two to follow up with, but regardless Steven nodded, “it’s not all you can do, is it?” Steven figured that she knew he could do more, but she didn’t know what, and he didn’t feel ready to give that away just yet, even if she had two abilities pinned down.

“You are right, there is more I can do.” There was a pause, as if Azula was silently pressuring him to reveal more, but the half gem boy wasn’t going to cave and spill his gem side. Instead he tried to sidestep the conversation to something else, “Where is it you went just now?”

Azula narrowed her eyes and held the gaze for a moment. Steven smiled warily at the pressure, but ultimately was glad when she dropped it and decided to go along with his next line of conversation. “I just simply went to see the cowards that ran away, but you stayed, I can’t help but wonder why you, out of everyone there, stayed.”

After a moment of recollection of why he did stay, he picked the reason that would please the princess best, “I stayed to protect you, Princess.” He was happy with his answer, but one look at Azula told him she wasn’t happy with it.

“You can leave.” She ordered as she walked past him in the room. Steven took a moment to take in what she just said. He looked at her with confusion and objection. “Do I need to repeat myself,” She said, turning around to face him with an expression that spelled out she did not in fact need to repeat herself. Steven left. He was just glad that she didn’t in fact take issue with how he got her out of the building after all.

Azula, by this point, was tired and didn’t need any more things that day to not go in her favour. If Steven was going to hold out on information, then she wasn’t going to fight it, she would just make sure there were consequences for not doing as she wished.

She didn’t know how to think about the day before her, it started off well, confirming what she already knew and exploring the mystery that is her newest pawn. But the day went sour when everyone seemed to come to the island. While it meant there was more information to be extracted out of Steven, she was no closer to getting it. The other obvious sour note was the whole temple catastrophe, but she had dwelled too much on that already.

She gave orders for the boat to leave port, it was time to return home. On this trip back, she decided that she would make it unlike the trip there and make it less pleasant for the fire nation’s newest edition.

* * *

The ship ride back was hell. Steven could have figured that it was going to be after the interaction before they departed. On the first day, Azula made him an errand boy again, which after the first time, wasn’t as bad. He was rushed all around the ship doing the odd jobs and menial tasks. He tried to end the day with another one to one meal with Azula, he was shut down.

The second day after departure was worse, Azula must have figured that the role of errand boy was slightly easier the second time, so she changed it. He was ordered to follow her around all day, this was a lot more stressful. At any slip up of what a guard should be doing at all times was picked up on and reprimanded, she was expecting and pushing for perfection. This was stressful for Steven who was usually more free in spirit, being forced into a rigid way of acting wasn’t pleasant. To top the day off, he was made to oversee her fire bending again, and like last time, misfired once to keep him on his toes, only this time he was smart enough to not talk back.

What was strange to Steven, was that other than her picking apart him as a guard, and the fire blast, there wasn’t much acknowledgement of him otherwise. It was like he only existed when she needed someone to rule over for a brief moment, or to embarrass him in front of others for not being ideal, both of which he couldn’t say he appreciated.

The second day ended with another attempt to have a one to one meal. Instead of refusing outright, Azula stared at Steven, assessing him, before ultimately shutting him down without a word again. Steven at this, simply sighed and went back to his own room to eat by himself. After eating and feeling somewhat lonely at not going back to where the majority of the navy ate, decided to opt for an early night.

Day number three was a weird one, nothing. This was equally as bad for the morning, he was constantly expecting something, he practiced the perfect way to walk about the ship, just so he couldn’t be corrected by anyone who could be watching on her behalf, but as the day went on, nothing.

The anxiety, while still present, had simmered down by the afternoon as he was sure nothing was going to happen. He had walked by her door that evening. He looked at it debating whether he should try, but figured she wanted to be alone and left, not attempting to try that night.

* * *

On day one of the boat ride, Azula thought her efforts were a bit week as Steven once again was going on as if nothing was wrong, and coming to her for a one to one chat again by the day’s end. Azula decided to up the ante, to do things that he seemed to respond preferably to in the past as far as fear was concerned.

By day two of the boat ride, it was clear that tactic one, fear, wasn’t working with Steven. Steven once again came to her after a day of torment, once again acting like nothing was wrong and wanting a one to one meal. It seemed her efforts were wasted. She was proud of her work today, making sure to be putting pressure on every move he made, but no effect.

For day three, she tried something different, not doing anything. She wanted to do this to see if it gave any reaction from him, from the last two days experience. The morning looked promising, with reports of him being stiff with movements, the afternoon however proved it was a failure. If fear was working, he would have been consistently perfect from the start of the day to the end of it.

She reflected on this and the progress of this training. If she was honest with herself, the tactic wasn’t really working from the start. It was almost like he was used to dealing with difficult characters and situations, and then professionally taught how to deal with possible negative thoughts about them. Whatever the case, fear wasn’t going to work, or if it was going to work, something else needed to be done first. She went over a few bits of information in her head.

Steven wasn’t native to the fire nation, which meant that he didn’t really know of her reputation. It also meant that his reason for staying or being there in the first place could be weak. If she wanted her pawn, she couldn’t have him being chased away before she had a chance to use him.

Steven didn’t fear the fire nation, which would have helped with tactic one, but he didn’t fear them, so the fear felt wasn’t transferable to her.

She couldn’t physically threaten him, with the supposed indestructibility that comes from making a crater in volcanic rock, meant that he was durable, in addition, she again didn’t want the pawn to flee before he had use.

To link in with the last reason, again, she was sure that he had abilities that she didn’t know about, which meant he could probably get himself out of threatening situations anyway. Tactic one, fear, wasn’t going to work.

Azula wasn’t worried though, to her this was a minor setback as she had another thing to try. She would have to try tactic number two: manipulation. She usually reserved this for ones who where closer to her, be it in terms of familiarity or of social standing, but if stress and fear aren’t going to work, then it was time to put in motions for tactic two, manipulation, to be of use.

The more she thought about her new plan, the more she favoured it to the old one. Steven was already more inclined to have one to one moments, confessing his inner thoughts and past, and one of the few guards wanting companionship as apposed to the usual ‘turn up and get things done’ mind set. If he wanted ‘companionship’, she would gladly give it to him, no matter how false it really is.

* * *

Steven began day four of sailing back to the fire nation the same way he began the third day, expecting something and alone, but this time less on edge. He wandered the ships corridors in a casual stroll. He didn’t really feel like interacting with others, he felt down.

‘Get it together, Steven’, he told himself, ‘stop moping around and do something about it.’ He paused, before continuing to think to himself, ‘But, Steven, I’m making no real progress, and it feels like I’m back at square one.’ He smiled slightly as he then continued, ‘Lets get back the progress then, be pushy, but not too pushy, and get back into the universe flow.’ And with that, his inward conversation ended. It made him feel better, reminding himself of his early teens when he spoke in third person to make him feel better. It was nice that it worked once again now.

He stopped being alone, it was time for Azula’s training, and while he was cautious, he still went. His self-prep talk made him ready for anything the day could throw his way. He didn’t have to worry however, as it was like a repeat of the previous day with there being no incidents towards him. This was good, he didn’t need any negativity.

The day continued, him being close enough to be around Azula, but far away enough to only really be seen if he was actively sought out. Both giving her space but being there if a conversation was to be started.

By the end of the day it was the moment of truth, evening meal, it was time for him to try again. He already talked himself into it, and if there was another voice inside telling him it was a bad idea, he actively ignored it. He went there once again, with both meals, and knocked on the door.

She opened it and let him in with no words at first. He walked over to the spot he had occupied last time he was in the room and began to eat. Azula just looked at him as he did so. She assumed her position and joined in eating.

After a few moments of eating, she spoke to him first, “I never thanked you.” It took Steven a few moments to register what she had actually said.

After forcing his mouthful down as fast as he could without chocking, he responded, “What do you mean, Princess?” He asked cautiously as he didn’t really believe what he had just heard.

“Just simply that, I never thanked you.” She remarked as if it were obvious. She eyed him, seeming to stare right through him to gauge his reaction.

“Thanked me for what?” Steven again asked cautiously, part of him still believed the conversation wasn’t happening.

Azula paused and closed her eyes for a moment before continuing, “For both staying, and for getting me out of that fiasco of a building.” She opened her eyes again to stare at him. Steven couldn’t really get a read on her expression as they looked at each other.

She continued, “Listen well, Steven, a fact you should know about me is that I commend loyalty. Everyone else in that building that was meant to be just that, loyal, escaped thinking of themselves first. You stayed.” Steven looked slightly guilty as there was a few other reasons for him staying that he couldn’t reveal, but almost as if she could read him like a book, she went on. “Now, I have ideas about other reasons why you stayed,” her gaze got a bit sharper at this, “but I don’t believe you were lying when saying one of the reasons was to protect me.”

Steven didn’t really know how to respond, he looked at her for a few seconds before just nodding, he didn’t want to tell the truth, but he didn’t want to lie to her either, especially after this being the first time she remotely opened up to him.

With that, the conversation while they ate came to a close. They spent the rest of the time eating in silence, Steven appreciating it a lot, compared to how the last few days had been hectic or stressing, and this just being calm.

After they both finished, he gave a respectful bow to her as he began to leave. Before he could put a hand on the door however she spoke for the final time that evening, “You don’t have to tell me those extra reasons just yet,” She remarked, “as I mentioned I have a good idea of what they are. With that in mind, remember, I appreciate loyalty, and therefore I would appreciate the truth when the time comes.”

Steven stood still. Did she know? The way she spoke was almost as if she knew a lot more that he thought she did. He turned slowly to simply say, “Thank you, Princess,” before actually leaving this time.

As Steven made his way to his door, he thought about what just happened, they actually had a good moment. Sure, it ended weirdly for him, but it didn’t change the fact they bonded slightly. Loyalty, that was the supposed reason for this, he didn’t know how loyal he could be to her, given his intentions. Admittedly Steven was sceptical, but if that is what made things pleasant today, maybe he could try demonstrating some more supposed loyalty in future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again about the lateness of this one.
> 
> I struggled for the longest time to finish this chapter it went through a few drafts. The change of tactic needed to be done, the commenters gave this idea confidence so thank you all for that, but I wanted it to be believable and in character, and I hope that I have done this.   
> When it was done, my beta had a lot of 12 hour shifts, so rest was a priority. 
> 
> Regardless of the delay, I hope you liked the chapter


	9. Back to Daily Life and The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the return back to the homeland, Azula practicing her tactic might be put on hold with a surprise meeting.

The ship had arrived in the night but decided to port in the morning when most of the ships crew was awake, in order to make it a more smooth transition back into life at the fire nation. It was onto waiting for the next assignment for the ship and back to usual routines for Steven and Azula. Or rather a new usual.

The impression Steven had got from the last encounter he and Azula had, was that he might be given more special treatment. He truthfully didn’t know how to feel about this. On one hand it meant that his task has more of a chance of being completed and it also meant less antagonistic behaviour he had experienced for the last week and a half, but on the other it meant more potential staff to take issue with this.

He also didn’t trust Azula yet. It was nice to claim he had shown a bit of loyalty and thus gained favour, but he couldn’t help think that it was too quick of a turnaround from how she was acting. For all he knew, it was a ploy to get him into a false sense of security before putting him under more stress that would be worse in comparison.

He frowned at his thoughts to himself, he should give her a chance first. With a sigh, he decided to do his best to curb suspicions and give her the benefit of the doubt. He exited his room on the ship, ready to face what the first day back in the fire nation had to offer.

“Steven.” He froze, “Just the person I wanted to see,” he turned around to see Azula heading towards him, he gave her a slightly forced smile as she continued, “I am updating your schedule for the day on a trial, you are to occupancy me everywhere today.”

He couldn’t help but feel like he was cornered into a trap. ‘No,’ he thought to himself, remembering once again, to give her the benefit of the doubt. He decided to ask, “Why has it been changed, Princess.”

“Because that’s what I decided, now come along.” She walked past him in the direction he was going, Steven taking the hint to just follow her. They made their way off the ship, Azula to her palanquin and Steven on foot, and started to make their way back to the palace.

Steven, while walking along, got lost in his thoughts. He wondered how the schedule would be different, his day was mostly based around Azula’s day in the first place wasn’t it? He wondered what more could be done to intertwine their days further. It could be good though; it meant more chances to talk to Azula, which is what his current strategy was for trying to help her.

He ended his thoughts when they got back to the palace, he waited as she exited her ride and begun walking inside with him in tow. He walked slightly behind as always as they walked through the palace to the training ground.

Steven had to give credit to Azula, sticking to the daily schedule of practice, it had occurred to him before on how dedicated she was, but coming home from a trip and getting straight back into it only made him more impressed with her resolve.

When they got to the grounds, she made her way to the center, to begin, and he stood by the door as he usually did.

“Steven.” Azula spoke, he didn’t get a read on her tone yet, “come here, would you.” Of course he could only assume the worst as his thoughts drifted back to his first day there.

Steven walked towards the center cautiously, “What do you need, Princess?”

“I want your opinions,” she said simply. “I would like you to come closer and observe everything that we do, understand?’’

There was a moment left for a pause before he replied, “You just want me to watch?” he asked in disbelief.

“That’s right.” And with that the conversation came to a close as she got into position. It took him another moment before he actually started paying attention, was she serious, and was he actually awake or dreaming.

He paid attention, non the less, as he did eventually decide he actually was awake. He watched her moves. He watched some more. He continued to watch. He didn’t see the point, She was already the best judge she was going to get, seeing as perfect was her reputation. He didn’t really see what he could offer.

That was the question, ‘What could he offer?’ Defense? It’s what his style of fighting used to be, or it was until his last bit of training before he left for his road trip, the training he would rather not think about. He was getting distracted, he pushed those thoughts aside and instead though about defense.

He watched her movements, this time with a focus in mind. Azula’s movements, for the most part, were fluent and controlled, it was clear any time he watched her that she was in control of the fight. However there were places where the fluency was exchanged for precise and particular strikes, the goal of those moves to end things quickly rather than continue the rhythm of exchanging blows.

It wasn’t a tactic he could fault per say, it was just slightly jarring to him when she opted for those movements instead of the usual flow. He continued to observe the scene before him but moved his gaze over to Azula’s opponent , the contrast was clear in movements. Her opponent was one he had recognized from other training sessions and his moves were just following the flow of hers.

Before he could really finish analyzing, it was over all of a sudden. Now her eyes were on him. “Well?”

“I… couldn’t fault you princess,” he said truthfully as even if she was offense orientated, she didn't leave any openings. At this, Azula looked triumphant, but also strangely enough a bit bored, probably wanting something. He continued, “Princess, me giving feedback was to help you get better at fighting, right?”

“It was,” she replied giving him a look of slight curiosity, “You have something to add after all?”

“Then could I suggest more surprises, from both you and your opponent.” He suggested sheepishly.

Azula furrowed her brow and gave an order, “Explain.” It wasn’t said in frustration, but more of curiosity.

“Erm, well, I don’t fight often, but when I have, something unexpected usually happens” Azula, and the opponent stared at him, prompting him to go on. Steven couldn’t have felt more out of place suggesting fighting tips, considering his stance on violence but continued his thoughts.

“I have been thrown in the air, rocks have been thrown at me, I have been whipped into the ground…” he decided to stop listing there at the more simpler ones to explain off, “my point is, I have been on the defensive, and real fights never go as perfect as that” he said before adding “my princess,” to make it seem more polite.

He turned to her opponent, “you might be able to land more hits if you were able to use a surprise tactic, even if it’s just confusing your opponent to gain the upper hand” then he turned back to Azula, “and, Princess, you might benefit from doing different stuff while fighting, so you can practice on getting back in control of the situation. Real world fights can be spontaneous and unprovoked so I think it could be beneficial to at least have a backup plan, you know?’’

Steven couldn’t help feeling embarrassed, he got a bit carried away, and he wasn’t sure if the advice was good or not, in the first place he wasn’t even an active fighter. He just looked at Azula waiting for her response.

She was still frowning. Steven paled slightly, his embarrassment slowly disappearing to uneasiness. “I will consider it,” Azula eventually said. A moment passed before Azula announced that she had finished training.

It was her down time now, if Steven recalled correctly, which meant in the palace he would usually be patrolling the corridors. But if his day had changed already, he was expecting it to change again, he waited for instructions from Azula. But with the sudden appearance of a messenger, it seemed the next part of the day would be decided for them.

* * *

It was clear to Azula that Steven needed more convincing of her change. He was right of course, it was a façade, but she needed to make him believe it wasn’t. On her journey up to the palace she quickly made a few plans to help with this, the first of which would be done immediately.

If she wanted to emulate closeness, what better way of doing just that than sharing opinions, or rather making it seem like she valued his; So she ordered him to come down and observe when she opted for continuing her schedule as usual.

Azula had noticed that this had an unexpected effect that Steven himself hadn’t noticed yet. The look he got this time from the rest of the guards at him once again getting special treatment, was anything but distasteful. The order was to make Azula and Steven closer, and had the side effect to start isolating Steven more than he already was as an outsider.

She kept her face neutral of course, not giving away what she had noticed and began to practice. Her plan was already working better than expected. Her attention at certain points in the fight had drifted to the ordered observer. She had noticed that he wasn’t really observing at first, but as the fight went on, Steven started paying attention.

Azula found what his change of attention was about when he spoke his thoughts. He had found something to look for. His advice was to be spontaneous and give surprises. Azula wasn’t sure if she was going to take it seriously though. It went against everything Azula practiced for.

Azula, was the sort of person that wanted precise and perfect moves and results, her fighting reflected this. Moreover, Steven didn’t really have confidence in what he was saying, but he wasn’t lying either. She would ask him more about that later.

As practice was finishing, one of her father’s messengers had appeared before her. Before she could speak, the messenger did, “Princess Azula, The Fire Lord requests your presence.”

Azula frowned slightly, not in discontent, but because it was unexpected. “Father wants to see me? I was just finishing anyway. Steven, follow me.” She ordered.

Steven just nodded and began walking towards them to be ready to follow. The messenger however frowned slightly, not saying anything. Azula stopped in her tracks abruptly causing Steven to also stumble to a quick stop. ‘’Wait just a moment, is there a problem?’’ she asked calmly, directing the question towards the messenger.

The messenger’s eyes widened in panic, fearing that he angered the princess, he quickly averted his gaze to the floor choosing to remain silent. Azula’s eyes narrowed in distaste, watching as the man before her ignored her question. ‘’Well?’’ she asked impatiently.

‘’N-No Princess Azula, please, I humbly ask that you forgive my insolence’’ he said while bowing to the Princess. Azula hummed in response, considering what he said, she decided however upon seeing his gaze drift once again to Steven, the meeting probably had something to do with him.

‘’Very well, seen as though I’m in a charitable mood I shall let you off just this once.’’ She said as she resumed making her way back to the door, deciding not to make any further issue out of it. ‘’Though I will warn you, don’t make me regret that decision.’’ She called out in a menacing tone as the two followed behind her at a steady pace.

* * *

The new group of three made their way to the throne room, Steven waiting outside, the messenger and Azula entering.

“Father, you wanted to see me?” Azula asks, formally and kneeling in respect. The messenger going off to the side, out of the way of the conversation that was about to happen.

“Azula,” he said acknowledging her presence, “Tell me about this trip.”

“What part about the trip do you wish to know, Father.” She replied, again upholding formality as best she could.

Fire lord Ozai frowned slightly with impatience “What have you learned about this … Steven.”

Azula froze for a second. She had ideas about him; ideas that suggested a partnership or comradery between him and the avatar, be it the current or previous. But these ideas had yet to be confirmed and telling her thoughts would lead to her pawn being taken, so she replied with what she did know for certain.

“He seems unearthly, it would appear he came from the sky and crash landed there.” She replied, hoping that would be enough. But just to be sure, she reminded him of what was already known, “My current information is he can produce shields and is durable enough for volcanic rock to not harm him from a great height.”

“And he can fall slowly,” Ozai continued, his frown deepening, “just like an air bender would.” His gaze pierced through her. She was going to reply but he continued before she could, “Tell me, Azula, why was I not made aware of this?” His tone was falsely calm, the weight of his words adding tension with every one he spoke.

The first emotion Azula felt was anger, someone had gone past her to bring this information to her father without going through her first. That particular emotion faded quickly as her current predicament involved getting rid of anything that could get in the way of her reply.

“He can fall slowly, but not like an air bender.” She took a moment to recompose herself. At this Ozai looked interested, so she continued, “I was there when he did this, there was no air manipulation involved, he just descended slowly.”

“Really?” It was just a single word reply, but it dared anything false to be said between them. He didn’t let her continue though as the words purpose was made clear, he instead asked “How?”

“I’m not certain yet, Father, I am finding out.” She said more calmly now, as their conversation seemed to be going back to neutral.

“See to it that you do, Azula, I am as much interested in our guest as you are.” He said with a smile, but the tone didn’t match. “Thank you, My Daughter, that will be all.”

Azula stood to bow, and then left the room out the way she came, the messenger from before coming to the center to talk with The Fire Lord quietly as she left. She would never admit it, but the second emotion she felt there was fear, being all to glad when her father’s tone rescinded a bit.

She exited the room to be met by Steven, who was waiting patiently for her to get back to him. She paid him no mind as she walked past him, Steven following her anyway as she marched though the halls.

The anger came back to her. Someone had gone behind her back to tell her father the new ability learned before she could. It had momentarily slipped her mind when she recited what she learned, and was then going to get to it before her father spoke the information she was about to. All it took was the moment of her not being perfect that got her scolded.

The worst part about it was that she didn’t know who told him. It could have been someone from her ship, from Zhao’s ship, a fire sage using information to lessen their punishment she was sure they received anyway … there were too many options to choose from.

So much for loyalty to the princess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, sorry this hasn't been updated last week, had a short notice interview to prepare for and perform.  
> Didn't get the job though :/ but I can say I did my best and fingers crossed for the next one.
> 
> I hope you like this chapter, and as always, feel free to point out errors and changes or if I'm writing OOC.


	10. Investigation and letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven and Azula Start tracking down where certain information came from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone :D  
> I'm starting to think that my self made commitment to a chapter a week is failing. I don't think I can promise this as much as I'd like to.
> 
> And I forgot to mention, that the comments on chapter 7 inspired this little mini arc within an arc on someone reporting on Steven on his powers being like an air-bender in that scene.  
> I was like "Ooooh yeah, Azula and Steven know he isn't a bender, but others don't, And spirit connections haven't been made but someone might make the connection, that's a good idea everybody else."  
> So it inspired me, I only have you all to thank (@Pausa07, @Knowall, @Fashnik). I was in such a rush to get the last chapter out that I forgot to mention it then, so I am now.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter

As they both walked through the corridor, Azula was silent. Steven could only wonder what soured her mood, as even though she didn’t show it, he was sure she was in a bad one. Steven didn’t know what he should be doing, he wanted to say something, but in the past, she had responded unkindly to him showing care. Then again, he found he couldn’t help himself; he didn’t know if it was curiosity that was persuading him to speak, but it eventually won him over into doing so.

“Is everything ok? … Princess” he asked and hastily added again. He kept his gaze on her as he walked a bit faster, so they were closer to walking side by side, her still one step in front of course.

Azula gave him a glance, Steven couldn’t really read the emotion. She kept quiet as they walked, not answering him, which frustrated him a bit, but he too decided to keep the silence. After a while more of walking, she decided she would grace him with an answer.

“You indirectly caused me a problem.” She eventually replied, “but it has been resolved.” Steven looked at her, confused on what he could have done.

The thought ate at him too much that he had to ask, “What did I do?” He thought he was discreet enough that no one saw him helping Aang and the others, he only hoped that that didn’t cause problems.

“When that avatar” she spat venomously, “decided to collapse the temple on us all, it would appear that some subordinate of mine saw you jump out of the building.” She continued casually, waving it off. It was clear her discontent was directed elsewhere, or if she did hold frustration towards him, she was good at hiding it at this moment.

Steven however was now showing his frustration. “You got into a problem, because I saved you? That was your father in there right?” His confusion at the situation being more evident now. At first Steven was appalled at this, but he recalled his conversation with Roku at the start of his time on this world. He recalled that Roku had said that Ozai wasn’t the best father, and he knew it was brief initially, Steven would have to find out himself how far ‘wasn’t the best father’ was putting it, if she would get in trouble over this.

Azula stopped walking, and in turn so did Steven after walking a few more paces to be beside her, “Not ‘Because’ but ‘How’ you saved me.” She was glaring daggers at him. “I know fully well that you can’t bend, otherwise you would have done so the first day we met.” Steven frowned but nodded, confirming to her that her reasoning was correct, even if he didn’t need to.

She continued, “but falling slowly is similar to what an air bender can do.” Steven’s eyebrows rose slightly, but his frown was still present, he truthfully hadn’t thought about how his powers could be perceived or were similar to ones already here. “To anyone else, it would seem like I am keeping one around. Luckily enough, Father trusts me that you aren’t one.”

After staring at each other for a moment, it was something unspoken that they began walking again. Both having an idea to continue the conversation, but in a less open space.

They swiftly resumed their journey, Azula ahead and Steven in tow, with Azula now leading the pair to a place safe from outside listeners, her room. They soon got to Azula’s quarters, with Azula entering first, and Steven following suit and softly closing the door behind him. They settled into the room, Steven standing, much like he did on the boat ride, and Azula, choosing to stand also, making her way to her desk.

It was silent still, both looking at each other, waiting for the other to speak. Steven was the first to, “To recap, because I showed that one of my powers is to fall slowly, to save you, you got into trouble.”

“No. You almost got into trouble,” She said simply, “that would have just been a problem for me.” Her gaze was back to neutral. “I’m sure you know, but air benders have been extinct for one hundred years. There is only one left, and that was the little bald monk with tattoos, in orange; if people start thinking you are an air bender, it gives a simple connection to the avatar you don’t want others knowing.” This made sense, Roku had told him, that because of the war, air bending had been lost to time, aside from Aang of course.

“Ok, I will be more careful about using my powers” Steven decided. Upon hearing that his powers might not be far off from enemies of state earlier , he was more than happy to jump at the excuse to save himself from another label. His decision also came from the concern that, because of his actions so far, she was the one to get into trouble from him showing a few powers. He was equally concerned that she got in trouble in the first place.

Azula got her coy grin back now that the subject was dropped, “You know, it could help me in future if I knew what else you could do,” a pause was held for a moment, “but we have more important matters to attend to.” She said casually as she reached into her desk to get certain documents.

Steven didn’t miss the not so subtle suggestion. He was just happy she wasn’t pushing it, presumably due to her treating him more favourable. He was equally as glad that she wasn’t reverting back to her previous ways of treating him like a doormat. It didn’t go unnoticed. His attention was back in the room at the mention of important matters. “Was there something you were told to do in the meeting.”

“No,” she said holding papers she had retrieved just moments prior, “just something I am choosing to do.” Azula said as she laid out the papers on her bedspread. “Let’s just say, I’m doing a staff check”

Steven wasn’t following, “Why?” He walked closer to all the papers that were spread. “Are we going on another trip?”

Azula continued looking over the papers, that she had access to at that point, as she answered, “We aren’t going anywhere, I’m re-evaluating whom I can trust.” She glanced at him and explained further, “The fact is, someone there went behind the princess’ back, my back. How can I know they have my best interest or safety at heart when they would rather gain favour with my father?”

Azula paused, thinking for a moment before continuing. “This isn’t wrong, loyalty to my father is a good thing, but if it’s at the expense of the commanding officer, who is to say they wouldn’t disrespect that relationship in future on a more extreme extent, betrayal for example.”

Steven frowned gently but nodded. He couldn’t decide whether he agreed with her assessment or not. ‘I mean, It could be understood’. Yes, it showed disrespect to authority figures and made them less trustworthy in life and death situations, but Steven couldn’t help think that part of it was Azula taking it personally. Not that he would ever say it out loud at this point.

Steven spoke up, deciding to voice his opinion to quell her feelings a bit. “I… think I get what you’re saying, but … what if it was because they were worried for you.” He looked at her, trying to play off his reason as well thought out.

“Explain.” Azula replied showing a bit of interest in what he could say, but keeping her main focus continued on the crew list.

“Ok, so, what if they saw me jump out with you and then maybe thought that I threatened you to silence?” He weakly speculated.

She laughed in surprise, he couldn’t tell if it was real or not, “Funny, you think you could threaten me?” She smiled menacingly “There might be powers you aren’t telling me, but it’s funny to think I’d let you get away with a threat.”

Steven thought for a moment then smiled also, his smile taking Azula by a bit of surprise “Yeah, true, you would do everything you could to make me pay, wouldn’t you.” He chuckled a bit, slightly nervous as he did so, trying to play into the supposed humour that Azula found in the situation.

Azula looked at him frowning, but then shrugged “A fair assessment actually.”

Steven awkwardly went back to listing ideas, “Ok, what if he thought that you could use me as a tool for overthrowing the current fire lord, and wanted to warn your dad.”

Azula raised an eyebrow at him “Why would I do that? I’m next in line and everyone knows it.” She shook her head at the just as ridiculous idea.

Steven relented and shrugged, thinking up something new. “What if …”

“There is no real reason to,” Azula interrupted, “unless it was to make me look like I had been hiding something and cause distrust from my father.” Azula sighed and continued. “You can come up with ideas on how it could have been, but there is only one to know for sure, we find out from the source.”

Steven relented again, “You are right, but I’m sure there is reasonable explanation.”

Azula frowned at him, “I doubt it, and that’s a rather naïve outlook,” Steven held his rebuttal for that comment “Regardless, I want to know who it is so I can have them exempt from my navy in future.”

Steven just sighed, deciding not to say anything more to argue. “Ok, so what do we do first.”

Azula, feeling satisfied she won the debate, gained a smug look as she went over the first step, “The ship and its crew are taking a break before their next assignment, we can ask around later. First we should find the letter that must have come by messenger hawk.”

“Why do you figure it’s from a letter instead of face to face conversation.” Steven asked, knowing she was correct, but wanting to know the reason regardless.

“There is always a hawk.” She said simply as she put the documents away again. “Father is the leader of the country,” She went onto explain further, “He would not have audience with mere crew-mates from a ship.”

Steven immediately thought back to his first sighting of Yellow diamond, even on the diamond line, her -at the time- pearl took the message and then it would have gone through her to Yellow if it were important. “Oh right, got it.” He said afterward, saving Azula form further explanation.

They left the room after that, heading straight for where incoming messages were processed. The walk was quiet, not an uncomfortable forced silence as other journeys had been but more of a relaxing and understanding quiet, much like the brief walk to Azula’s room.

The room had only occupied one person when the duo got there. This was to Azula’s favour, as her plan was simple, make him submit to the force that is Azula. “I need a list of letters received within the last 4 days.” She demanded simply.

“Princess… you can’t expect me to…” he began to complain or reason with her, but one look at her face stopped any further back talk. He weakly spoke out “Right away, Princess,” before looking for logs of letters from the days specified.

Steven silently disapproved, personally he would have preferred to ask nicely with a please and thank you eagerly provided. But he had to remember that the person he was helping wouldn’t think twice about asking nicely because she didn’t think once about it in the first place.

One by one the letters with any relevancy came into view, piling up as each one was found. Azula glanced over at the sender for each one and briefly at what the contents of each letter was. Steven stood back as he let Azula sort through what she needed.

He wanted to help, but he had found that the alphabet used wasn’t his native one, it reminded him of the eastern countries of his own planet, but alas he couldn’t read them as well as English or the little gem glyph he knew, he was just lucky that they could understand each other, he assumed avatar magic.

His second thought that occurred to him was that Azula was doing the sorting herself. Granted she knew what she was looking for, but she could have quite easily made the ‘… mailman? …’ do it for her.

“Two letters.” Steven stopped thinking as Azula spoke, disappointed with that she had found. “Two different letters were sent regarding,” she glanced at what Steven had dubbed internally as the mailman, “that thing you can do.” She went back to addressing Steven, he assumed the secrecy was because the less people that knew, the better.

Azula took the letters in question and promptly left, causing Steven to catch up to her on leaving the room. “So, two different people sent letters, do you know who?” Steven asked as he began walking with Azula again.

“I have my suspicions,” Azula remarked, picking up the pace as they walked down the corridors, “but I know where one letter came from for certain, our own ship.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the chapter,  
> I hope I didn't make errors, spelling or character  
> If I did feel free to tell me :) I am always looking to improve.


	11. Confrontation and The Same Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azula and Steven find out the answer to the two letter situation. Azula isn't surprised or happy at what they find.

The day was calm. For the fire nation navy, taking a day of rest before embarking on a new assignment was a nice change of pace. They were making the most of it. Some opted to spend the time on land, but most stayed on the ship; it was what felt most normal to them.

The calming ocean breeze, the nice weather only complimenting the wind. The calming waves, rocking the ship back and forth gently like a parent would a child. The calming view of the sea and sky, and an angry princess and her stooge coming into view. Time off was over just like that.

For the fire navy soldiers that noticed, relaxation was dropped instantly for a stiff respectful posture. It was thought that if you were still enough, you would become a part of the background. Those that didn’t notice were uncharacteristically spared from Azula’s warpath, only to notice, and double take at her presence as she brushed past them, causing the remaining crew members to stiff in fear or anticipation. 

She wasn’t interested in the common foot soldier, no ,Azula knew that all messages, especially towards the capital, must be approved of by the captain of the ship. The usual captain she should say, as again, when she was on that ship, she should have been the commanding officer.

Steven walked pace with her, giving slight apologetic looks every now and then for the soldiers that were especially surprised by the sudden appearance of someone that, at that very morning, they saw heading back to the palace. Steven fills the silence, “So…. What’s the plan?” Azula glances sparingly at Steven before resuming her focus forward once more.

“A princess never reveals her secrets; besides, you will find out soon enough,” she coyly replied as they arrived at the captain’s quarters, sparing no time in getting there. It was lucky for them that the captain was one of the many that was happy to spend off duty time on the ship. The door to the room was suddenly slammed open by Azula, echoing throughout the open space, with Steven entering in tow, wincing at the action Azula gave.

“Princess? What are you doing here?” The question asked by the captain could have been considered rude, but was only worded like that out of surprise for her visit and the sound the door made upon opening.

“Watch. Your. Tone.” Azula ordered spitefully, she was never in the mood for perceived insubordination, this was especially true in this particular conversation after the morning she had had. “I am here on business,” she continued, answering to why she was here, wanting to get the point of her visit quickly and over with. “What letters have been sent from this ship.”

“What?” Again said in shock and surprise, Steven started to sweat a little, wincing at the way the captain’s responses were coming across. While Steven was certain that he didn’t mean to sound rude, he would rather Azula’s mood not worsen more than it already had that day. Luckily, the captain amended the sentence to “What do you mean, Princess?” There was a moment of pause, both Steven and the captain looking at Azula apologetically, Steven on behalf of the latter.

She sighed, clearly not having enough energy for the interaction, “Don’t make me tell you again,” Azula narrowed her eyes. “And I want a list of all letters sent from this vessel.”

The order took a few seconds to sink in. It was again because of the sudden appearances and the unsuspected nature of the question. “Right away, Princess,” he replied, which everyone was all to glad when he got his respectful response right this time.

The captain walked over to the logs for a second check, but he recounted what he could while he did so. “From what I remember; a letter came from a ship, a few letters were sent back and forth and an arrangement was made.”

Azula’s face darkened, putting the man before them at unease. Under the gaze, the captain felt a bit of pressure as he recited, but continued anyway, “The arrangement was that a top-secret letter was to be sent here, and for us to send it to the capital.” He finished as he found the proof and handed it to Azula.

“Did you, by chance, know the content of the ‘top secret letter’” Azula asked casually.

“No, I-”, the captain tried to answer but was interrupted.

“And you didn’t think to mention the ‘Top secret letter’,” Azula spoke with clear discontent laced within her words, “to your royal Princess and leader of the expedition.” She glared at him. Steven stood to the side awkwardly as the tension unfolded, creating an almost suffocating atmosphere as Azula’s verbal lashing continued.

“No…. Princess,” the captain said weakly. “On the day you seemed in a bad mood, so I thought-” he was interrupted again.

“You. Thought. Wrong.” Azula said in the same patronizing manner that she used earlier. “If it was that important, and heading towards the capital and was urgent enough, I should have known. Or do you have so little respect for your princess that you didn’t think it would be worth me knowing.”

At this, the captain did a sort of flinch and did a mixture of objecting and pleading, “No, Princess, that wasn’t my intention at all, I didn’t think it was worth the hassle for your thoughts, Princess.”

Steven had to admit, it was hard to watch. Azula wasn’t giving this guy a break, not letting him explain his probably good intentions and ignorance to what the letter actually contained. He decided to interject. It was a good moment for it too, as she was currently keeping him quiet with a stare.

“Erm, excuse me. Sorry to interrupt. Did the other person explain why they wanted you to send the letter?” Steven asked gently and reasonably, which, to the captain, was a saving grace and a nice change of pace from the bombardment the captain had just had.

“Yes, yes they did.” He jumped at the chance for possible redemption and escape. He took an extra moment to compose himself, “They mentioned sending it also so that if one of the messages was intercepted, the other would go through. Less chance of them being both intercepted.”

“That explains the two letters,” Steven remarked, hoping to lighten the mood by pointing out the solution to one of the questions. But to Azula, who had already made the connection on why there were two letters, was unimpressed. The only positive, as far as she was concerned, was that the conversation was going in a more constructive direction.

Steven spoke up again, seeming to take the lead now in terms of asking questions, considering he felt like he was easier to talk to, and was getting more information out of the captain. “do you happen to know which ship? Or who you were corresponding with personally that asked you to send the extra letter?” He asked gently again.

“He was a higher rank than captain, commander I think.” The captain spoke again. “I think his name was…” But he was interrupted again, the answer to the question stolen before his moment could come.

“Zhao,” Azula interrupted. She received looks from the two others in the room. “Please,” she sarcastically remarked, “it was obvious. That will be all.” She said as she began to leave.

“What?” Steven asked shocked this time, as he chased after her from pausing to process what just happened. “If you knew, Princess, then why come all the way down here?” He asked earnestly in confusion.

“I didn’t,” She replied, “I did have my suspicions, but when he said there was another ship involved, it only confirmed them.” She continued. Azula took a few paces before elaborating. “There was only three places it could have come. Two if we are being realistic. Those places were the ship we used, and Zhao’s fleet.”

“But that still doesn’t justify coming all the way down here?” Steven paused for a moment, “Or does it?” he asked earnestly again.

“I wanted to confirm two things.” She said casually as they kept walking, now heading off the ship. “The first thing I wanted to confirm was if my ship was involved or not, first-hand. I was right of course.” She added, a bittersweet smirk marking her minor victory.

“The second was if it was intentional or not. In other words, if they are still trustworthy or not.” Azula listed and finished as they almost got back to the palanquin.

Steven waited for the verdict, but it never came, so he pressed her for it, “Well?” He said politely as he could, Azula just glanced at him, not offering a response, “Are they?” He clarified, again politely, just interested in the verdict himself.

“No.” She answered simply, “They are not.”

Steven instantly looked disappointed, “But why not, Princess?”

They stopped outside the palanquin, Azula turned to face him, and looked at him in the eyes to make sure he understood her thoughts on what she was about to say. “The point still stands, whether they meant to or not, that they were insubordinate,” Steven looked like he wanted to object but she continued.

“I know Zhao, he is loyal to my father, don’t get that wrong, but he is also underhanded and selfish, does whatever it takes to win. He no doubt had done this on purpose for the exact reason I gave for why someone would do this, to cause distrust between me and father. My ship took part in that” She said bitterly.

Steven frowned, Azula seemed to use her father as an excuse for her enemy’s behaviour, which he felt wasn’t right in the slightest. He was also sad that she was right in the end, granted her ship had been unknowing, but it did aid in her getting into trouble.

The subject was dropped when Azula promptly got in her seat, as it was picked up and they made their way back up to the estate.

* * *

Azula was frowning to herself in the palanquin, she could only feel betrayed. She knew it wasn’t Zhao himself that saw the scenario, he would had at least brought it up with the interaction they had where she rightfully put him in place. No, this had to have been someone else.

The options for the common foot soldier was to either report it to herself, or Zhao, and they had clearly chosen Zhao. Either option as far a loyalty to the country was valid, but the fact that they didn’t choose her as the proxy for information, or at least bringing it up with her showed distrust to her as a leader.

She didn’t get it. She was a great leader, she knew how to keep others in line, she was intelligent, she could strategize, why did the soldier, whomever it may have been, choose Zhao.

She couldn’t be certain. She always left room for error so that the slight nicks in her thinking could be covered for, so she applied that here, she couldn’t be sure it wasn’t one of her men, and she wouldn’t be able to prove it if the first point of contact was to the other ship before it had set off. Many soldiers had been seen coming to and forth from both ships before departure.

She knew why Zhao did it. She played her hand too quickly as a form of keeping him in line. Threatening to stop his promotion process must have only motivated him to secure it. This turn of events, reporting key information to her father, only secured what she had put in motion in the first place.

These thought lines and similar others buzzed around her brain. It was her loss and she hated losing. ‘Looks like I have to be more perfect in my thinking to avoid another’, she thought to herself. It was the only way to keep things in control.

She decided to stop dwelling on the events of the day as she saw the palace coming into closer view. After today it will be back into daily life, so she was ready for this day to end. She signaled for palanquin to be dropped early. “Is everything ok, Princess.” Steven could be heard from outside.

“I just felt a walk in would be more appropriate,” Azula replied as she got out and dismissed the throne-bearers, “Now, come along,” She stated, as she leisurely walked in the direction of the palace. Steven tilted his head in confusion at Azula as her figure made its way forward, his look changing to a weak unsure smile as he followed after her.

Steven. He practically did nothing to help her, he got to the conclusion long after she did, his ideas were optimistic and naïve, and he was just there to tag along. However, one thing for certain is that he couldn’t have reported himself, that alone made his presence tolerable. There might be a lot mystery surrounding the boy named Steven, but he didn’t make a terrible ally, at least in this instance.

“You know, Steven,” Azula said with a smirk, “part of me would thank you for the afternoons work” Steven smiled brightly at the praise “but you didn’t really do anything, so I won’t.” She teased; she might as well get some amusement out of the day.

“Hey,” Steven shot back, “what about that whole good cop bad cop routine we did?” He frowned now, getting defensive.

“The what?” Azula said, Unfamiliar with the term she had never heard before.

“Oh, yeah. The, ‘You be really mean’ and ‘I get them to talk to me because I’m nicer in comparison’ routine.” Steven said with embarrassment, “what we did was a textbook example,” He continued getting his defensive tone back.

Azula decided to ignore the other term she didn’t know and replied, “Again, I knew the conclusion from the moment the other ship was mentioned,” She pointed out, “but I suppose I have to give you credit for getting him to move the conversation forward,” Steven smiled again, and she chose that moment to add on, “Even if it wasn’t needed,” She coyly remarked in smug satisfaction.

Steven, now seeing that she was pushing his buttons, softened a bit. He wasn’t sure if it was in a playful nature or not, but he decided to believe it was, in hope that maybe, even though she didn’t know it yet, just maybe they had gotten slightly closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone,   
> I hope, despite Covid, everyone had a good Halloween.  
> I hope you all like the chapter, the end of a little mini arc of 'who dun it', I also hope it didn't end too quickly.   
> I am looking forward to posting chapter 12, my draft so far is arguing but bonding at the same time, to keep it vague. *cough cough trauma cough cough* 
> 
> Once again, point out errors I have missed, I am always looking to improve. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy.


	12. Memory Lane and Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because of recent events, Steven makes an effort to change Azula's mind about how things are done. Instead they debate over parental figures.

The day started of uncharacteristically normal; one could expect that after the mild investigation the other day, the day would have started off different. The schedule was the same, but both he and Azula were ignoring the one difference to come out of the morning; Zhao’s promotion, the one that Azula put in place and threatened to halt. To Steven, the letters motivation was more clear now, but still very much underhanded.

The morning’s activity was the usual routine despite the news; Steven overseeing her combat training. He wasn’t asked this time to come close and observe this time, but he noticed was while her opponent had taken to some of his advice, being less predictable and thus getting closer to actually touching her, Azula hadn’t.

Azula seemed to be keen on not stopping her relentless idea of perfection. If anything, it seemed like she doubled down on that ideal since yesterday, or at least this morning. For the guards who weren’t at that post every day, watching her train, they might have missed it. But for Steven, the guy who oversaw the princess’ training every day he was at the palace, he saw the difference. It was only slight, but her movements were sharper, her gaze more focused, and she was as relentless as ever.

She had beaten her opponent down into submission, sighed seemingly out of boredom, and stood back up straight. “That’s enough for today. You are all dismissed,” She announced to anyone present. Steven moved to leave the grounds also. “Not you though, Steven,” He stopped as everyone else glanced at him, walking past him, to the door. “You are to accompany me, your schedule has changed remember,” she coyly chastised him as she began walking to the door also.

“Oh, right,” he said sheepishly, “after yesterday, I kinda forgot.” He was unsure of what he was to do though; he remembered that at this point, Azula usually had downtime or some form of meeting. He had hoped it wasn’t the latter.

He didn’t ask what she was to be doing as they made their way through the halls, he could only hope it wasn’t in the direction of the throne room. Every time Azula had gone in there, there was something bad to come out of it.

The first time, The Avatar had been discovered. While this was a good thing, Aang fighting for re-balance and everything and it gave people hope, it also meant that a nationwide hunt had begun for the child. He also didn’t miss how Azula had acted around him after that.

The second time was yesterday. Azula goes in, and comes out unnerved, getting chastised for being saved. Then she does on a spree of finding out who wronged her, ignoring the fact that Steven had been thinking more about: None of the anger was directed at her father.

He would have at least thought that Azula should have some anger towards him now. Since the news this morning was that the person that got her into hot water, was the person that was getting praised and promoted because of supposed loyalty at her downfall.

Steven had been thinking about it a lot more since yesterday, it only being at the front of his thoughts since this morning. He could understand partially; He loved his parental figures, both his dad and the gems; but he also understood that a child could, intentional or not, avoid dealing with issues surrounding them. Again, he loved them, but it was because of that love that he grew up too quickly, choosing to deal with others before himself, something that he only really truly addressed and reflected on in therapy.

Azula’s parent to him seemed a lot more worse. Not only was she being made to grow up quickly like he was, but she was also raised to be a leader, raised to take no mercy, and raised to a high standard that he knew she couldn’t keep up forever. It was hard enough holding himself to a high standard, what he thought everyone else wanted ‘Steven universe’ to be. But to hold yourself, and someone else holding you to that regard. Its double the disappointment when it shouldn’t be.

As Steven was lost in his thoughts, he was mainly glancing down, but his sight drifted, he occasionally looked up to the left when recalling something for his thoughts, “Something wrong?” Azula half asked, as they walked past the turn off for the throne room, instead heading to her room. His movements must have been to obvious to others that he was thinking about something for Azula to outright ask him.

“No,” He said on reflex, “nothing is wrong.” He then thought for a moment, should he follow his reflex? Even with his ‘friendship’ with Azula being as strained as it was, he didn’t want to poke the metaphorical bear in bringing this up so soon. But then he thought of the one key difference between the two sets of parents. His family was filled with love for him, he didn’t really see any love here.

He decided his reflex was wrong, he needed to say something. They were getting close to her room. He needed a nice organic way of bringing it up. It took him far too long to realize his childhood could have been better, she was still fourteen, she could still be helped, right? They got to the door. But she would have to admit it’s wrong, it was White Diamond all over again.

As they entered the room, he thought about her, White Diamond. He grew to learn to love her, as she overtime had grown to earn it, but he was anything but wrong if he claimed the first few years had been easy. Forgetting her splitting him apart, she was stuck in her ways, like Azula was; even after deciding things needed to change, she did the light slip back to her old mindset. It only took the aforementioned splitting him apart to cause her to think about her not being right all the time.

He glanced at Azula and quietly sighed. He wasn’t ever going to think about doing that again, even if it could apply to now, but he did want to find something that he could use that might make her start to question things. All he could ask himself was ‘what’.

* * *

Azula was frustrated, and she took it out in her training. She was sure that everyone knew by now, but Zhao was due for the promotion, it was getting sent by messenger hawk later on. The only positive that she could take away was that she made it happen. Granted the first half was because of her efforts alone, and it meant that her being in line for the throne was more secure now that Zuko was less likely to return.

With another opponent beat, she sighed. It was helping her mood, proving she was the best, but it wasn’t enough. She put an end to the practice, “That’s enough for today. You are all dismissed,” and one by one, everyone started funneling out, including the one person who forgot a change of schedule. “Not you though, Steven,” she saw the people glancing at both him and herself, she kept her focus on the guards leaving, “You are to accompany me. your schedule has been changed, remember?” She smirked as she noticed that the guards appeared fed up again, with Steven getting more treatment. He was getting more isolated, which meant she was becoming his only positive contact, her plan was working perfectly.

After he said an excuse she only half listened to, they made their way through the palace halls. Occasionally she would glance at him, he was following her, but his focus wasn’t. His gaze was slightly at an angle facing upwards, and he had a thoughtful frown painted on his face. “Something wrong?” She decided to ask as they were nearing her room.

“No,” He said seemingly without thought put into his response, “nothing is wrong.” A lie. She frowned slightly. She would find out soon enough though, she didn’t feel like getting pampered or doing much work, so she planned on spending today's midday downtime just talking, reminiscent of their boat ride meals. The part of her plan that was isolating the young guard was working, but she still needed to get herself on his good side to get use out of him; the best way was to do what he was almost begging to everyday, just talk, which is what they were about to do.

They had got to her room. She turned around and just looked at him, he didn’t notice of course, he was still daydreaming. She waited a moment before she decided that she wasn’t going to spend the time just staring at him daydreaming, so she was the first to speak, “Clearly it’s something.” The suddenness of the unprompted sound was enough to get Steven back to focusing on the real world.

He looked at the princess with a suddenness that matched hers. He looked at her for a while, hesitating. He clearly was too much of a pansy to come out right and speak his mind. So clearly it was a sensitive subject. If direct wasn’t going to work, indirect was the route to go. “Tell me,” she pondered in a teasing tone, “was the portraits of our great nation’s leaders enough to get you to tell me about your mysterious origins.” She knew that it wasn’t what was on his mind, but the casual prompting for him to ‘spill everything’ was something she could go back to.

For a moment, there was no reaction or response, but soon after his eyes widened and a smile that could only mean he had found something to respond to. “You are next in line, aren’t you?”

Azula was caught slightly off guard with the question, it was far from any response she was expecting. “Yes, I am.” She replied simply, she didn’t think anything else as a response was worth saying as everyone knew she was a sure thing for the throne.

“What about Zuko.” Steven said after, his facial expression making something she couldn’t read. Azula frowned a bit, so that was what he was after, ‘well played,’ was all Azula could think to respond with.

“Sure, I miss Zuzu,” she reflexively mocked as she thought of him, “But he won’t be coming home any time soon, and throne is as good as mine,” She confidently smiled.

But again, Steven surprised her further by asking, “Why isn’t Zuko allowed home?” Azula narrowed her eyes at being surprised twice, the second time less so. She didn’t know his angle for what he was trying to talk about, but he was going a tediously long way to get there.

Azula sighed in slight annoyance before answering, “Its simple really, he showed disrespect and was punished for it.” She answered casually but frowning non the less as she looked at the boy before her.

She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t follow up on her brief explanation, but rather changing the topic slightly again to ask something that was only sort of related. “Don’t you think its too much?”

Azula frowned, “What _exactly_ is too much?” she asked, her frown forming into a scowl.

“He got banished,” Steven said slowly, trying to tone down the temperature of the conversation. “That was the punishment for disrespect,” He said incorrectly, “Don’t you think it’s a bit harsh.”

Azula looked at him and corrected his false information. “No, his punishment for disrespect was an Agni Kai, his banishment was punishment for being a coward.” She glared at him for even bringing it up if he knew a bit of the situation already.

Steven just blinked for a moment with a blank expression, the only thing of note being the slight look of concern in his eyes. “Ok,” he said calmly, “putting aside being banished for being scared,” Azula decided not to correct him as it was clear he was going to continue, “What is an Agni Kai?”

Azula sighed and regretted not correcting him to save herself from explaining something else to him. “Agni Kai, it is a duel between two fire benders,”

Steven frowned slightly in his concern, “Why would the Fire Lord allow him to be in a duel.” Azula closed her eyes in exasperation and frustration.

“Because his opponent was the Fire Lord,” Azula explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Zuzu disrespected our Father, and thus his honour, and he had to fight to get it back. When Zuzu refused to fight, he was marked and banished.”

Steven paled, “D…Don’t you see how wrong that is?” He asked, taking his turn to be exasperated. His seemed to be pleading at Azula for some reason but she simply scoffed in reply.

“What’s wrong with it? An act of disrespect needs to be fixed, and that day Zuko,” she said using his actual name, “ didn’t bring any honour to our family.” She ended, hoping Steven would get it.

He didn’t, “So he isn’t allowed to be apart of the family anymore? A Dad shouldn’t do that to their child.”

Azula glared at Steven, “How dare you.” She spoke evenly but with intensity behind each word. “My father is a great man and leader that this country needs.”

Steven continued to frown in concern “But he isn’t a great dad! My Dad would never banish me. We have had a few disagreements, but I’m sure that banishment had ever came up as a thought. It’s not a punishment you think of first.”

“And what would be a suitable punishment for someone, who is representing the strength and conviction of a country, who is leading and winning a war against the rest of the world, who is to never show weakness, to give.” Azula retorted, still level, but her tone getting slightly harsher with each point.

“Not banishment!” Steven said exasperated again, “Where is the love. The love that a parent is meant to have.”

“Correct love is earned,” She spat with her own frustration, as again it was another obvious thing Steven has missed. “Giving and receiving love unconditionally makes you weak.”

Steven’s frown deepened, “Love does not make you weak,” He childishly countered.

Azula retorted “Yes it does.” She paused in annoyance, “You sound just like mother,” She said spitefully.

Azula wasn’t sure what changed but the concern slowly stated to leave Stevens expression as the conversation went on. “Well it sounds like _your_ mother may have had a point.”

“Look at me, Am I banished?” Azula smirked, having found a point to make her the victor of what was clearly now an argument. “No, Zuko on the other hand is, and guess what mother gave him? Unconditional love. I, on the other hand, have been raised correctly, and am next in line for the throne.”

Steven’s tone shifted a bit, “Well at least _your_ mother was trying to be a good mother.”

Azula smirked with a glare, “Well she failed, she was a terrible mother.” Azula proudly stated, as much as it hurt her to say, it was a fact she used to win the argument.

“Oh, believe me,” Steven rolled his eyes, “Showing genuine love instead of self-idealized fake love doesn’t make her a bad mother,” Azula’s smirk dropped the slightest fraction, her eyes narrowed, while his concept of fake love could have been a stab at her, due to their differences of opinion on the matter, she knew it wasn’t.

To confirm her quick thought, she countered, “What do you know of bad mothers?” Azula goaded.

“I just do, ok?” Steven slightly gritted his teeth, at her comment, she decided to press further.

“What? I have examples to back my claims” Azula remarked, “Don’t have any?”

Steven’s Irises wavered a bit, almost changing shape, “OH! I have examples,” And with that Azula knew she had got her wish to find out more about Steven.

“Ever taken to prison for something you didn’t do? Ever responsible for fixing the mental tares of thousands because ‘mommy dearest’ tricked her family? What about being put on trial that turned out to be useless because faking your own death and being your own fake murderer was something your mother made you responsible for.” Steven ranted and his volume raised with each point, his face seeming to flush in anger slightly with every word.

Steven continued. “Ever had a family member in constant anguish because they knew the truth but were commanded not to say anything? Ever had someone try and kill you because they were locked away for having a disagreement over something Rose ended up fake doing anyway. Ever had someone try to kill you because Rose, oh sorry, Pink Diamond got bored of someone, left them for six thousand years and went on a killing spree that would have ended all life as you know it. What about all of that, and more building and building that eventually turns you into a…” The flush on Stevens cheeks was brighter and pinker now.

Upon getting to that last bit, Steven widened his eyes, touched his cheeks, and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and muttered something slowly and calmly before the pink on his cheeks started to dim down and fade. With a few more slow breaths he opened his eyes and shot an apologetic smile, “Sorry, got a little heated there.” As much as Steven tried his best to keep smiling, due to the conversation beforehand, occasionally it would falter slightly with a lapse in concentration.

Azula just stood there and looked at him. Well, one of her forever ago suspicions was correct, he clearly had some training in dealing with stress. What was interesting to her was what she had just heard, it was clearly from experience. She stared at him analytically, he can’t have been much older than her which made the fact that he was reciting these particular problems from his life that much stranger.

What was further surprising to her was the shift at the end, they were having an argument, he was clearly invested enough to get angry over it, it was only until he remembered something at the end that he stopped to thing about making amends to his negative emotions.

If there was any potential listeners, the scenario must have been quite strange, it went from Steven complaining and Azula being frustrated, to him being concerned and her mocking his opinion, to him ranting, to nothing. Quite literally, they were now in silence, looking at each other, unsure of what to say next.

“Well that was fun,” Azula said dispersing the tension in the air and walking around Steven to the door. Truthfully, it was to her; Azula hadn’t had a debate like that in a long time, this one was especially so since it was the mild-mannered boy finally showing real anger.

Steven just looked at her surprised that she was dropping it just like that. She knew that he was expecting something, but she simply wasn’t in the mood for starting anything, it had helped get rid of a bit of stress because of the past few days, and besides, it was fun.

* * *

Steven felt embarrassed, he had just gushed about several issues he had with the person who identified as ‘Rose Quartz’. He was only glad Azula dropped the situation as quickly as he cooled off his negative emotions.

Steven was also slightly ashamed of himself, he honestly thought he was doing a lot better. He thought he had worked out all his thoughts in therapy. He thought at this point he would be able to deal with it better.

He was told that it was always going to be with him, he had accepted that, but he didn’t like how easy it was pulled out of something. Truthfully, he thought it didn’t help that the only person he had had interactions with was Azula, who wasn’t empathetic.

As much as he wanted to help Azula, it was clear it was a one day at a time sort of deal. It was going to take a lot longer than a few months to help her, that whole interaction just then made it very clear.

He sighed as he watched the rest of the day passing before him, more training for Azula and she had let him independently patrol the halls for the last bit of the day. He was glad Azula suggested it, he felt he needed some time to himself, he might try connect with Roku and ask to vent for a bit. It would be better to end the day with a half kinda therapy session.

* * *

Azula had left Steven to his own devices to end the day with. She was more than happy to peacefully reflect on what she had in fact learned about the enigma that was Steven himself.

His mother was clearly an interesting person, that much was left unsaid. There was a lot to take in if she was honest with herself, the thing that he led with was ‘self-idealized fake love,’ so he clearly believed any love she had for anything was fake. Azula pondered that for a moment, but any thoughts she had on that were quickly forgotten as she moved onto the next thing.

“Six thousand years…” She said aloud to no one. Steven had mentioned that his mother was neglectful twice before continuing that one of the instances was over six thousand years. Whatever had tried to kill him had to be at least that old, but that also brought into question the mothers age, and Steven’s age. It was possible that her assumption earlier on his age was wrong, but regardless, there was something there.

A possibility was spirits. If Azula’s assumption was correct, and Steven did in fact have something to do with the Avatar, this would explain it. It would explain the age problem, and perhaps some of his abilities that she has seen or that he claims to have more of. However Azula’s intuition told her it might be something else. It was entirely possible that he was some sort of spirit or son of one, but there could be something else, while it explained a few things, all of his issues sounded human.

The third thing she decided to summatively reflect on, was that he has been against attempted engages on his life. She could only conclude that the unsure advice he had given her for fighting was actually from experience, so she might give it some more serious thought. But it wasn’t the worst thing, there was something at the end he would rather not say, and even bringing it up stopped him ranting further.

The last thing she took away though was that he clearly found something wrong with the fire nation, or at the very least, her fathers’ way of doing things. Azula could only scoff at the idea, how could anything be wrong? She was perfect, so were the fire nation and her linage. She was insulted, but she wouldn’t stop that from interfering with getting him close to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone, hope you liked the chapter,  
> I hope it wasn't too much of a tone shift as far as the chapter was concerned. Will be less heavy next time I promise.  
> Thank you all for reading, and as always, if I missed anything, let me know of the mistakes. 
> 
> Ok so now to ask for opinions, I am planning on keeping books 1 2 and 3 all in the same fic, but i was wondering if any of you thought it should be split so its a series of fics.  
> Also, I was wondering If I should work in the northern air temple into this fic, like i did with the winter solstice, I'm undecided at this point, leaning towards just keeping the rest of book one in the fire nation, but i was again wondering what you all thought


	13. Being 'Nice' and Festivities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a week of research, Azula decides to try find the answer to her problem once and for all with a distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, Sorry for the lateness of the chapter, I found this one hard to write
> 
> I had the first half done, the middle took a while and towards the end it was easier to finish off again. 
> 
> I hope you all like the chapter. 
> 
> But while I took a while, we hit another milestone, 2500 hits!   
> Once again Thank you to everyone who has read this far and all the lovely comments, kudos, and bookmarks you all decided to leave. I really do appreciate it all.

Six thousand years. It was the one thing Azula thought more on, Steven had said Six thousand years. After a few uneventful days at the palace, it was something she thought about when she got the chance. It was another puzzle piece she had gained about the man in question.

She had at one point actually asked his age, he replied that he was eighteen years old; it was already older than what she had initially guessed before six thousand years was something on her mind. He replied instantly, no lie, but he had also, with no prompting, added that people always said he looked younger than he was.

So if he was to be believed, it was the mother who had at least six thousand years of age. Azula frowned to herself, was he a spirit? The question had been on her mind since that day. It eventually got to the point that she had hired a historian scholar to help her look into it, her conclusion: He was too human for one. Yes there were human spirits, but it was because that in life they were spiritually connected and then became one, not a spirit just looking like a human.

Was his mother a spirit? This was more probable, but again, he was faced with human issues because of his mother, trial for murder, spirits don’t work like that, from little she did know, spirits definitely didn’t have a court system and she had found out that unless they had made themselves mortal and attune to the mortal plain, they couldn’t truly die.

Azula was no closer to any answers as she was before she hired the source of information. It honestly was all assumptions on her part, and he had not given any more clues since his rant. Upon remembering the rant Azula stopped her train of thought, she could trick him.

Steven had been careless in the past about letting things slip, even on the first day, he decided to perform a unique ability without thinking about the implications. It only got more careless from there, jumping out of the window without a second thought, and being too busy in a rant to think about what he was saying. She just needed to get him to speak without thinking.

She currently was spending time alone in her morning downtime, something she had opted to do since deciding research was something she wanted to do within that time, so she just had to wait for her second down time to have another chat with Steven. She would have to think of a way to get Steven himself to conclude if he was a spirit or not. She glanced over at the calendar; she might have an idea.

* * *

Friend making had been tough for Steven, he thought that maybe he could at least find one, but nope. Everyone in the palace guard seemed to share the same mentality as his guard mentor did on his first day, however unlike her, who had bothered to listen to his side of the story, the others didn’t.

For whatever reason, Steven hadn’t really seen his single day mentor again. Of course it was partly due to the traveling he had been on shortly after his introduction into the palace, but he hadn’t seen her since he had returned. Steven had figured she had been re-positioned elsewhere in the palace or the fire nation; in any case, he still had no one to talk with.

He honestly felt a little isolated, the only interactions he had with other people were the sometimes connections with Roku, who was more than happy to oblige talking, and Azula, but interactions with her had been lacking the within the past week or so, with the exception of one conversation they had about ages.

All Azula said to him in regard to their lack of sharing a day, was that she was working on something. He had hoped it wasn’t some form of revenge plot against that guy who used her for a promotion, but also that it wasn’t her not wanting to be near him because he let his emotions get a little carried away in ranting about his mother.

He didn’t know how to feel about her leaving him alone; on one hand he missed the interactions he had with her, interactions with the only alive person that would actually acknowledge him as something other than someone who was getting special treatment, on the other it meant peace. Honestly, he was starting to think that he wanted the interactions with her again, the loneliness through the day was slightly depressing.

It was only at the end of her fire bending training that he got his wish, she was finishing up on her forms, still as precise as ever. When he started to head to the door to go and petrol the halls once again. He was stopped by her saying, “Steven, I am demanding your presence this afternoon.”

He spun around and looked at her, waiting in the center of the room. The room half full of guards at this point gave him a scowl, something he had come to realize that they had been giving him overall for some time now.

Despite her action probably deepening their negative bias towards him, he couldn’t help in brushing it off and walking to Azula with a smile, something to show her that he was ready for what she had in store. “Yes, princess,” he eventually responded earnestly.

He waited until the unpleasant gazes were gone and the two were alone to ask, “So, how did that project go? Is it finished?” He honestly wasn’t sure if it was top secret, but he thought it polite to not bring it up in front of others regardless, to be on the safe side.

“Inconclusive as of yet,” She casually remarked, “I have a bit more to do to see if I’m right or not.” She said as she began her walk towards the door.

“Is that what you need me for?” Steven asked, interested as he followed after her. Over the days of mild isolation, the project, being the cause of Azula’s diverted attention, honestly had him curious on what she was actually working on.

“Partly, I need something done in the city,” Azula pondered, “It isn’t urgent, but going today has an added bonus.” She finished as they left through the door.

They walked through the halls for a few seconds before Steven decided to speak up and ask one of the questions that came to him, “Ok, so this project, it’s not revenge right?” He couldn’t help put a bit of a hopeful tone in his words.

“Revenge…” she pondered for a bit, but then remembered something “You mean against Zhao? No, he isn’t worth it at this point,” She said dismissively “He has something big planned off his promotion, and I don’t mean the Avatar, at the very least he will be out of our minds for the mean time.”

Steven reflexively frowned, party for Azula again dismissing what happened to her, but also for what this big thing could be. Considering the man Steven thought him to be, he didn’t think that was a good thing.

While Steven didn’t know what this big thing meant, he asked a slightly different follow up question, “Does that mean he has quit on trying to capture the Avatar?”

Azula side glanced at him as she continued walking. “No, he is still trying, he currently has one failed attempt so far actually,” she again said dismissively.

“Wait really?” Steven immediately replied as they passed by the portraits of the previous fire lords.

“Yes, really,” Azula replied with a mocking smirk, “The attempt involved acquiring highly trained archers, and even then, the Avatar escaped because of a silent spirit.” She elaborated with a vindictive joy to her voice, not hiding her amusement at someone who wronged her not getting their way. “Luckily gaining a valuable resource and he still can’t even catch a child.”

“Well… that’s good.” He awkwardly said as they kept walking. He was glad that Aang was doing just fine considering he had another pursuer with a lot more resources than his previous one. Steven sighed as he thought about that. It was amazing Aang was doing well, but he felt sorry for Zuko; the banished prince had less at his disposal than an underhanded random soldier with sideburns.

“Ok,” Steven said, stopping his thoughts to continue the conversation, “So no revenge,” relief coated his words at not having to be a part of that, “but I guess it doesn’t tell me much about what it could be,” he caught Azula’s coy glance, and added, “and you aren’t going to tell me any time soon, are you.” He sighed with a slight smile on his face.

“What can I say, a princess can’t be too eager to reveal her secrets” she mockingly said as she continued to lead the way to the entrance of the palace. “Besides, I’m taking some time off from doing that, with the exception of what we are doing this afternoon.”

“So will you at least tell me the bonus? Of going today?” Steven asked curiously as he spoke the second question on his mind.

“I could tell you,” She glanced slyly at him, Steven looked at her with anticipation but knowing where her sentence was going, “but I won’t,” she smirked, “once we get into the town center, it will be easy to guess anyway, think of it as a surprise.”

Steven sighed but nodded, he could only hope that this bonus and surprise was a good thing.

* * *

They had decided to walk for whatever reason, Steven found it strange. Granted they hadn’t got out a lot, any business done could be done in the palace, but since the letter caper, Steven hadn’t seen Azula use the palanquin.

She had made the excuse that this project was on a need to know basis, and throne bearers weren’t on the need to know list, but Steven was skeptical. Currently, Azula was inside a building that was supposedly for her project, and Steven was outside.

Steven, deciding that he would stop worrying about the princess that could handle herself and it didn’t need to be addressed now. Instead he started to focus on the bonus; It was a good thing after all.

The city had been decorated with lanterns yet to be lit, and the occasional stand, with some still being set up. It was obvious to him that it was some sort of fair, having lived next to one his entire life. No, not a fair, there was no rides, more like a festival, and Steven was looking forward to it.

He could tell it was only a matter of time before the activities started and he couldn’t wait. It wasn’t exactly the same as what he was used to, but it was close enough to home that he could definitely appreciate it while he could.

Azula exited the building she had been in to find Steven looking around at what had been set up already. “I take it you like what the surprise was,” she smirked as she closed the door behind her.

“I do actually,” he said fondly looking at it all, “It reminds me of home a little,” he confessed as he smiled.

Azula looked at him, amusement slipping for a second before her facial expression returned. “Well, truthfully it almost slipped my mind,” she paused just thinking of it, “I really don’t know whose idea it was for a fire nation cultural festival to be in the winter,” She sighed, “I feel it would be better served in the summer, to truly celebrate it.”

“But don’t you think winter is the perfect time.” Steven replied smiling at her.

“What do you mean?” She looked at the boy with an expression that disagreed with him, but was willing to hear him out, despite effectively disagreeing with her immediately.

“Well winter is exactly between two summers,” Steven elaborated, “If summer is the season of fire, then surely the best way to celebrate it all year around is to remind everyone in the coldest season?” He reasoned.

Azula paused for a moment. She was all about efficiency, so it had only ever made sense for it to be done in the month that was dedicated to her element. But his reasoning got a pass in her book, the only thing wrong with it was that it was too optimistic. “I still feel it would be better in the summer,” She replied after considering his words.

“Let’s agree to disagree,” Steven said softly with a smile, quickly moving onto his next question, “So what exactly does one do in a fire nation cultural festival?”

Azula, deciding to ignore the notion of disagreement in favour of keeping things on good terms to get information later, instead asked her own question, “So you haven’t been to a cultural festival before.” Her eyes studied him as he responded.

“Well,” Steven began, “I have, but I thought it was about sharing culture, why have a fire nation cultural festival in the fire nation?” He questioned.

“The Fire Days Festival is a tradition that goes back a few generations, within the last few though, it was seen as an opportunity to spread fire nation culture to the rest of the world,” Azula explained, as she looked around at the stalls that seemed to be ready to start, “The fire nation colonies get a taste of the homeland, and we, here, get to experience what is popular in the colonies, its used to unite the fire nation in all its territories.”

Steven faltered a bit when reminded of the war, but shook it off in favour of having a good time for once, “Ok, so, what do you recommend to a person who has never been to a… Fire Days Festival before” He said after a moment.

“It should be staring any minute,” Azula said dismissively, “Honestly, I’d just say look around,” she glanced back to Steven, “But it is tradition to wear a mask.”

Steven nodded, “Then let’s get a mask first.” Azula just watched him as she walked after him as he went to look for the nearest stand that had masks on offer.

* * *

Steven had found the festival fun, after getting the masks, the duo had opted for food, Steven trying all the vegetarian options throughout the stands. They watched some fire bending done by professional showmen. A highlight was finding some cultural music to listen too.

Considering Steven was pretty removed from the fire nation despite being in the center of it, it was a treat to embrace what the nation he was living in had to offer. He might just have to get out more often if he ever got a day off.

He had fun, he wouldn’t deny that, but he was also on edge. One would think that due to the festivities that he would have been relaxed, and he would have been, if it weren’t for Azula being slightly off.

At first, he couldn’t put his finger on it, but over time he had realised that she wasn’t acting like her authoritarian self. Granted he hadn’t interacted with her for a few days, one could claim she made a miraculous change over the week or so, but Steven knew her better than that.

It was because of not interacting with her that actually tipped him off, he was too lax with how he was presenting himself, being too absorbed within the atmosphere of the festival, that he forgot the dynamic they were in, princess and guard, a dynamic that Azula would have enforced, unless it was because she wanted something.

They dynamic had slipped because of his rant, acting more true to himself, and he assumed she had let him get away with it because she too needed it, and maybe because he apologized afterwards, they were trying to be on better terms after all, but why was he being let of currently.

Unless…

“Princess,” He said formally, as they walked back from the festival at a leisurely pace, next to one another, something he also had noticed.

“Yes?” Azula replied, gazing at him again, eyes that he had caught on him more often than not.

“How did you find the festival?” He asked cautiously as he glanced back at her.

“Above average, I would say,” Azula pondered, “The decorations this time were put together better than last year, and it was a bigger turn out too.”

“You didn’t really take part in it though,” He mentioned as he recalled the events. “Was it not worth your time?” It was Steven’s turn to observe her.

Azula’s eyes pierced into his frowning slightly, “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to ask why we came,” Steven inquired. “You had this thing for your project, but I’m sure they could have come to you, and even then, we could have gone straight back to the palace.” He saw Azula frown slightly, so he decided to add, “I’m not saying I am not grateful, I am, again it reminded me of home a little. But why wait around if you weren’t going to do much.” 

“First,” Azula said with a tone that got Steven’s full attention, “I couldn’t risk information being leaked, we don’t want another letter incident.” Her frown stayed firm. “Second, are you suggesting that I can’t let you enjoy yourself.”

“Yes, that’s part of it.” Steven replied, probably wording it poorly but it was good enough, “That’s what I’m finding confusing.” He studied her eyes for a second, “You don’t really talk to me for a week, and suddenly I get to go to a festival. It’s just off.” If Steven thought his first wording was poor, he regretted his last sentence.

“So,” Azula scowling now, “I can’t do something nice without being ‘off’”

“No, wait, It came out wro-”

He was immediately interrupted, “Here I thought that after your little explosion about how much you hated your mother, we had gotten a little closer.” She said spitefully.

“Well I thought we hadn’t,” Steven frowned now, “I was a bit on edge because I thought you hated me a bit for it.” Azula waited for him to continue, “You don’t talk to me for a week, and you think we got closer?”

Azula smirked now, “So you are that insecure that if you don’t have approval straight away, you think people hate you.” Azula frowned again, not letting Steven speak, “I’m not sorry that I, as a princess of a nation at war, don’t have time to coddle a guard because he feels isolated or lonely.”

Steven frowned with embarrassment, but then closed his eyes and breathed out. He took a step back and walked a few paces behind Azula now. “Sorry, Princess.”

Azula spun around to stare at him with a glare, Steven stared her down back, putting proper formal posture into how he stood, making sure that she couldn’t criticize anything. Without saying anything, she turned back around and the two walked to the palace in silence.

* * *

Azula wasn’t sure what to make of the last part of the evening, she didn’t get the information she desired, it ended with her feeling a little insulted, and her idea of being nice hadn’t worked.

Yes, the outing was to try get Steven off guard, it failed. What was infuriating was that it was only opportunistic. She could have thought of anything to keep Steven from thinking clearly, but she chose the festival out of charity.

Clearly it was the wrong choice, again she miscalculated, doing anything to be nice doesn’t work out. But she should have known that, so why did this frustrate her.

He was right of course, there was an ulterior motive, but why did him suspecting there was one infuriate her. She concluded that it was the level of trust between them. Despite her efforts since changing tactics, there was a lack of trust. It wasn’t that Steven would betray her, he had no reason to at this point, but it meant that he wasn’t safe from doing just that. She didn’t have his loyalty yet, which is why she felt like this, she had failed her little goal for now.

But her main goal wasn’t entirely failed, their little spat made way for opportunity. By this point she had Steven figured as someone empathetic and hating to do wrong, so if he believed he had done, he would be the one to apologize which put her in a position of social power, she could still get something from this yet. How to use this for potential information, she would have to find out.

* * *

Steven had mixed feelings on the day; for the most part he had loved it, actually interacting with someone again and enjoying a festival. The last bit of the day hit him sour. Was he in the wrong?

He honestly hadn’t pegged Azula as the type to let him enjoy himself like this, he was sure if there was an ulterior motive to letting him around the festival, he even thought that getting something out of him was the whole reason they left the palace in the first place, but now he wasn’t so sure.

In his room he laid on his bed thinking, he wasn’t doing well at his mission. Even if it was Azula having an ulterior motive, she was being ‘nice’ and he should have really celebrated that to her to try something on a subconscious level.

He sighed at that. He would really prefer her doing something nice for the right reasons, but maybe it was wrong to expect that yet. Deciding to close his eyes with a final thought, he will try better tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the chapter, 
> 
> I hope the last bit was in character for them both too, though if it wasn't I am open to change and edit it.   
> I also mentioned that in a comment that i would try get it out by the end of the week, I'm posting it 2:35 Monday morning, but I suppose it is still Sunday for my western peeps.
> 
> I also had a different outline planned for the chapter as well as something I had to cut, the cut thing was a nod to the comics where it was Aang vs Zhao with air bending relics, but upon looking at it, I placed it after the deserter but before the northern air temple, so because I pinned this around the deserter, I couldn't include the little nod, I might later though
> 
> As always, any errors spotted are welcome :D


	14. Trust and Concealing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The idea of trust is confronted. Steven and Azula think about changing their levels of it.

The last evenings events had affected the morning and a bit of the afternoon. Steven was alone again. Instead of his usual routine of being apart of overseeing training, he had hall duty. He was no stranger to this, it being his job for the last week or so while Azula worked on her ‘project’, but the issue with today was that was all he was scheduled for, at least previously he had Azula’s training sessions to spice up the day a bit. His morning had consisted of walking down a hall, walking down a hall, and you guessed it, walking down a hall.

Steven sighed, ‘I guess this is what I get for looking a gift horse in the mouth’, he thought to himself. An effective evening off was presented to him and he just had to make sure it was for the right reasons. He felt a bit stupid considering it. He wanted to make sure for her personal growth, and he had gained enough self-respect to no let himself be used, but he wasn’t one hundred percent sure if he was even being used in the first place.

He shook his head to shake out the thought, he had dwelled enough on this line of thinking last night, he didn’t want the whole day to be reflecting on possible poor choices, though walking through halls devoid of people would make one alone with ones thoughts. Trying to think about something else, Steven distracted himself with the phrase he had thought to himself to spark off this repeat of thinking.

‘Looking a gift horse in the mouth, it’s strange a strange phrase, what even is a ‘gift horse,’’ he thought to himself. It wasn’t the best topic of choice for occupying his head, but anything beat counting steps and comparing hallways by the numbers of steps he had done for the last few sessions of walking through halls.

A voice spoke out to him which removed him from his thoughts, “You there,” Steven spun his head around in surprise to see a messenger addressing him, “you are to report to the training ground immediately”

This didn’t make sense, by Stevens estimation, Azula’s training should have ended by now, both of them in fact, so this new order was surprising to him, even if he were to disregard what happened yesterday.

Still processing this, all Steven could manage to reply with was, “You mean right now?” just to give him a little extra time to comprehend what was said and what to expect.

The messenger looked at him without giving an answer but promptly then started heading in the direction of the training grounds. Steven, taking the hint, followed after. He had hoped the little extra thinking time would help, and while it did with the comprehension of what was happening, it didn’t help him with what he could expect.

Was the training session extended? Why was he needed? Weren’t they not on good terms with one another? Was that the point, was something bad going to happen now? But why now, sticking to the usual schedule, Azula could have done something then. Unless it was a last-minute thing. But Azula always plans things out.

All these thoughts played through his head as he was led to the grounds. Most of the journey was over in a seeming instant, the door was coming up. He could think about it all day but ultimately, he would only find out when he walked through the door that they found their way over to.

The messenger had left Steven there, walking off to do other tasks, but it left Steven alone to walk in, which wasn’t comforting. He pushed on the door and looked in, it was just Azula in there, waiting for him, staring at the door which he was sure she saw open a bit.

Alarm bells went off in his head. Just him and Azula, on training grounds… a place that is used for fighting, were they going to have a fight?

Steven steeled his nerves and made his full way through the door, and walked to the center of the grounds, coming face to face with Azula.

Silence.

Steven’s composed expression that was ready for anything slipped a little bit.

“Well?” Azula said staring him. After returning a blank expression to her, she continued. “Don’t you have something you want to say.”

Stevens expression that was ready for anything had since been forgotten by him. He wasn’t expecting that. He eyed her, looking at her face to get a read on her, nothing, it was a natural expression.

“I… have wanted to apologize to you, princess,” he picked his words carefully, keeping his eyes on her. There was no response, so he continued. “If you honestly,” he paused looking at her “had no ulterior motive, I apologize and am very sorry, princess.”

“Not good enough,” Azula sharply responded, Steven looked taken back and was about to retort, but Azula beat him to it, “Do you know why I actually want an apology.” She coldly asked.

“No, princess.” He said honestly. With he way she worded the question, he concluded it wasn’t a matter of pride, but something else, and he was curious to what that could be.

“Trust.” She answered simply, but with a condescending tone, “this is about trust.” Steven frowned, but waited for her to continue, “That,” she said spitefully “attempt at an apology, and yesterday evening, made something clear to me,” she glared at him, “You don’t trust me.”

Steven looked at her blankly, ‘What?’ he said internally. “You think I don’t trust you?”

“I know you don’t trust me,” Azula spitefully countered, “and frankly I think its an issue we need to resolve.”

“I trust you,” He argued, but faltered a bit when he actually thought about it.

“Aside from yesterday, which was the straw that broke the camelephant’s back, I have other examples.”

Steven, deciding to ask about what a camelephant was later, instead asked “What examples?”

“You are still keeping your powers secret, for one,” She stated, seemingly ready for his counter.

Steven froze, she had got him there. “Ok,” he said softly, “Ok, maybe you are right. Maybe I don’t trust you yet, but can you blame me?” Azula scowled at him but let him continue. “The first time I have a conversation with you, I get ambushed and fought against. Then when I’m finally used to my new life and starting to relax, you shoot fire at me, and treat me like I’m less than human,”

Steven started putting frustration into his tone, “And then I get shot at again but ignored. Then you suddenly change and are starting to be nice and I think ‘oh maybe we can be friends.’ But one argument about parents makes you ignore me for a week, so maybe I think you are going back to how you were.” His frustration slowly trickled off after venting his last few experiences.

“So, once again princess, If it was just me being paranoid for no reason,” he said it softly and changed the wording of his apology this time, pushing more responsibility onto him, even though the sentiment was the same, “then I am sorry for yesterday.”

Azula just stared at him. He looked back at her, his head lowered apologetically but still looking at her, waiting for her response. She closed her eyes slightly and spoke, “Very well,” She opened her eyes again, “Though I still think your attempt at an apology could use some work, I will accept it for now. You can go”

Steven looked at her curiously, but smiled slightly, both for getting his reasons of his chest, but for them mending their dynamic slightly. “Thank you for understanding princess.” He turned around to leave.

“Actually, before you go,” Azula spoke up and Steven turned around, “my project has one last piece needed. Tell me everything about spirits you know.” Azula looked at him neutrally.

Steven blinked a few times at her, “Spirits?” He paused for thought, “Well if I am honest, I have met one, but honestly I don’t know about them really,” he replied apologetically.

After a few moments of Azula staring at him, decided to let him go once and for all, “That will be all.”

Steven nodded and headed out of the training grounds. He closed the door with one last look in to see Azula seemingly in thought. Steven shrugged and began walking around the halls again. While he was in a better mood now than earlier, he still couldn’t help but sigh at returning to the boring job that was walking around the halls.

This time he had something new to think about, ‘Why was the project a secret?’ If it was just about spirits, then why keep him in the dark at all? He knew enough about the world that they weren’t myth in this one, and they were apart of the culture, Roku had told him on one the chats they had had. So why keep it a secret.

He could have kept the fact he knew one, Roku, a secret, but after Azula confronting him about the trust between them, he thought he could at least let that slip. He was no where close to telling her about all the gem stuff he could do, but he could start small and vague. It might even help her trust him a bit more.

* * *

Azula would call today a success. The interaction went well. Not only did he apologize like she wanted him too, she got information. The apology wasn’t the exact one she had wanted, but his second apology was close enough to the desired outcome.

It was unfortunate however that while she got answers, it left her with more questions. The answer she got from Steven on if he knew spirits or not was genuine, probably him reflecting and deciding to be more upfront, which Azula would call a further success. However, if his answer was genuine, then it meant that he really only knew one spirit, and while it could have been his mother, she already knew the spirit he was referring to.

It could have been a stretch in logic, but she reasoned that the spirit he knew was the previous Avatar. She had thought more about this, but the tone of voice he used when saying Roku’s name in the temple was similar to that of personal recognition, and not just someone you saw on a painting once. But it was only a possibility, one that she would not try confirming any time soon.

Even if her theory wasn’t correct, she no longer thought his mother was a spirit, It was definitely a possibility, but his answer was genuine, and if he was half spirit, then he would have more to say as far as spirits were concerned. So it begs the question, ‘what was Steven?’. It felt useless to, but once again, she review what she knew: strange abilities, durable, about six thousand years of age between him and his mother, strange names…

Nothing added up, how did floating link to shields, how did a really old mother translate to appearing by falling one day, and how did the name of a precious rock link to a flower, and a never before heard word: Steven. It was a shame because in his rant he glossed over the name Rose and Pink diamond so fast that she wasn’t sure which one was his mother, not that the information would have helped her at all, but any information is better than nothing.

She was back to square one, but again, she was one step closer to the identity that is Steven, and again the impression she got from him that he would work on the lack of trust he had for her.

“Avatar Roku,” She said out loud to see if it would give her any new threads of thought. She was out of luck. Though one thing was for certain, as long as that theory wasn’t disproved, she would have to remind herself to be careful. Steven might try trusting her, but she would need to be choosy at what trust is actually given. Trusting a friend of the enemy wasn’t a wise choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> A shorter than usual chapter this week. and one more chapter closer until the end of book one, personally I can't wait for Azula and her possie to start chasing around the earth kingdom :D. (probably got 3 or 4 chapters left until the end of book one, then a few more until the start of book 2, for those who are interested.)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as always, If I have made any Spelling, grammar, or any other errors, feel free to point them out to me :D


	15. News, Napping, and the Uncertainty of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven learns of some news that spells danger for the north

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I hope you all are having, or will have a merry/happy : Christmas (eve), Boxing day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year, Chinese New Year, (Sorry I missed winter solstice as a celebration, date wise)  
> Here is my chapter, Sorry its a bit late

Since the confrontation about trust, nothing much had happened that spiced up the casual day. It was routine as usual. There wasn’t any need for the Princess’ schedule to be any different at the moment, so as such, Steven found himself in his usual routine since the conversation.

One thing of note however, that did manage to spice up the days was the various news that Azula had told him. Zhao’s failed exploits were a topic of conversation on a couple of days, the news actually allowing Steven and Azula to bond a little; Azula relishing in the man’s failing and thus providing a poetic victory for her, and Steven internally glad that Aang was holding his own and outwardly glad that the underhanded soldier got his comeuppance.

The first piece of news being that Zhao had supposedly been ambushed by a master fire bender and had his ships burnt, something that Azula was sure was an exaggeration or lie, and the second was that he was defeated on The Avatar’s home territory and had an advantage using air bending relics, something again she was sure was an exaggeration.

The other bit of news that deviated from the norm was something not to do with Zhao, new technology had been recovered. The man behind said invention was lost to rebellion and no more new war changing ideas coming from him, but the fire nation was practically buzzing with the new asset. Steven didn’t really ask what it was, just that it was something that probably meant bad news for the rest of the world when they started being put into production and use.

Today was one of those days for Steven, something that Azula had dubbed newsworthy enough for Stevens ears. The morning training had been completed, and Steven and Azula were passing time in one of Azula’s rooms, one that seemed to have the purpose of Azula being tended to by maids.

“I have some news about The Avatar,” Azula had said spontaneously to start of the conversation as she was in the middle of having her nails filed. Her eyes now on Steven.

“Oh, what’s the news?” Steven replied as he stood of to the side glancing back at her. He wasn’t worried about the news, if it was something major, he would have heard about it by now from Azula herself, so he was relaxed as he asked.

“He is heading north,” she casually mentioned, again eyeing him to see how he reacted.

Confusion crept on Stevens face, “Is that important, Princess?” Steven asked as he glanced back at her.

“Not particularly,” she closed her eyes again and went back to relaxing as she was being pampered. “It just means that our troupes are heading north too.”

Steven still failed to see how this was interesting, if it was to be assumed that it was Zhao she was talking about, it was a given that Zhao would be following Aang wherever he seemed to travel to next. “Is there something interesting about the north?” Steven asked again, he was curious to see what Azula actually wanted to tell him, as he was sure there was more to it.

Azula opened her eyes slyly to look at him once more, “You know it means there is going to be war, don’t you?” Still looking at him for his reaction.

Steven’s eyes widened, both in surprise and confusion. “Erm, isn't the fire nation already at war?” He turned more towards Azula the more his interest was piqued.

She smirked, “Yes, but if I’m honest, it’s mainly been a war with the earth kingdom as of recent, when I say war, I mean that the fire nation is preparing for battle against the northern water tribe.” There was a slight pause before a knowing smug smile was presented on her face.

Steven knew that smile meant something, he pressed further, “Will you win?” It was a simple question, but it was all he could think to ask in response to that.

“Yes, we will win,” She smugly said, “If the information that Zhao has is correct, then it is a certainty, only a fool would fail.”

“What exactly is this information that guarantees a victory?” Steven asking yet another question. he was sure Azula was stringing him along this far on purpose, but he couldn’t help playing along with her guiding the conversation, a mix of apprehension and intrigue kept him in the conversation.

Azula raised a hand and the maids left the room, so it was just her and Steven left in it. He wasn’t sure if it was because she had finished with what she was doing, or if it was to deliver this next piece of information in private, “What if I told you that there was a way to get rid of water bending.” Azula asked with her eyes on Steven’s expression, her own expression being smug and prideful at what she was about to tell.

“I would say that sounds impossible right?” Steven replied slowly, but because Azula had phrased it in such a way, and the context behind it, he was sure that there was a way after all, and it filled him with slight dread.

She looked at him amused, knowing he doubted his own words “There is a way,” she said simply, before elaborating and gloating what she knew, “Like fire benders have the sun, Water benders have the moon as a source of strength.” Azula smirked “But the moon goes further than that, it represents a spirit, and has a spirit representing it, and by extension, water bending.” She glanced at Steven with a coy smile and innocently asked, “Tell me, what do you think happens to water bending if that spirit is killed?”

Steven knew the answer. She had already given him the answer. It was clear to anyone with how she had set up the conversation that water bending would be stopped if the moon was to fade. All he could do in response was go pale at the news. Azula stopped her gaze and got up to leave the room.

“All we have to do now is await news about the fire nations victory,” Azula added ,as it seemed that Steven had answered her question with his shocked response alone, “Then two nations would have been effectively conquered by the fire nation,” she teased.

Steven frowned and opened his mouth for a response but stopped himself. He wanted to counter, and complain about how wrong that was, and try convincing her that it was wrong, but ultimately, he knew it wasn’t any use. All that would have done is cause another conflict between them, and he wasn’t ready for another one.

Steven mentally kicked himself as the pair left the room, he shouldn’t be hesitating about talking about this. But he was aware there was a balance he needed to learn. He needed to find the right times to talk about things to change her mind. If he came on too strong then it would push Azula to go back to how she was, treating him antagonistically, but if he didn’t say anything at all, nothing would change.

The interactions they have had since their confrontation have been, what he would call, safe. It meant that he was safe from any mistreatment, but it also meant he was lacking on his duty in actually helping her. He couldn’t let the bad conflicts they have had stop his progress, but he also had to think about when he said something. Ultimately, he held back a sigh as he walked behind Azula and was glad he didn’t say anything about the soon to be war, the timing would have been off for that one.

* * *

While Steven couldn’t help Azula today, he was sure that he could help in a different way. No matter how you put it, hearing that water benders could lose their bending was big news, and he had to report it to Avatar Roku.

As soon as Steven’s day had ended, he went to his room, laid on his bed, and contacted Roku. To Steven, there was no time to do anything else. There was an immediate response. Steven was pulled up to the spirit world and was met with Roku as usual when they had their conversations.

“Roku,” Steven burst out in worry, “I have something urgent to ask” There was a moment of tense silence, the suddenness of the outburst felt rushed and it had left the both of them taken aback for a second or two.

Roku responded with pleasantry before getting to the subject at hand, “Hello, Steven,” he said kindly before his tone went somber, “What is it that you wish to ask?” Roku looked at Steven expectantly as he finished his sentence.

“Is it possible for a normal person to get to the spirit world?” he asked with skepticism but worried non the less.

“Normally no,” Roku responded calmly, “the only two people that have current potential access to the spirit world whenever they please are you,” Roku nodded at Steven, “And Aang.” Roku paused for a moment and went on to explain further, “Even then, it’s not direct access, it is more of a medium for talking with past avatars, or in your case, me.” Roku explained simply, Steven was sure it was more complicated than that, but didn’t press further as it helped his understanding enough.

Steven sighed in slight relief at this information, but his tension hadn’t been absolved completely, “Is it possible to kill a spirit without entering the spirit world.” Steven asked hesitantly.

Roku frowned in concern, “Steven, what is worrying you?” He asked instead, trying to get more information from the conversation before he answered.

“Ok, so the fire nation is heading north to try and get Aang, and from what I can tell they have a way to stop water bending,” Steven rushed out again, “Azula said something about killing the moon spirit.”

Roku’s frown deepened, “The moon spirit?” he repeated to himself. After a moment he focused to address Steven again, “Tui and La, the Moon and ocean spirits are residing in the mortal world, hidden away longer than most can remember.” Roku clarified “No one has found them in millennia, they should be safe from harm.”

Steven, at this point, turned his skepticism towards Roku. Was that true, was there no way of harming the moon spirit? If so, where did Azula’s confidence come from? Steven decided to ask, “So the spirit is completely safe?”

Roku’s certainty had faltered, but he replied honestly, “Unfortunately, no.” Roku offered his condolences in a look, “while I find it improbable that the fire nation do know where to find Tui and La, I can’t guarantee they are safe from harm.”

Steven’s nerves had spiked as he frowned, so there was a chance. If there was one thing he learned, it was to trust in Azula’s confidence, and about this she was confident.

He didn’t want to completely disregard the hope that Roku was trying to give him, he knew Roku was speaking from what he knew, but it seemed like Azula knew something they didn’t in this instance.

“Ok,” he said uncertainly, he paused for a moment, “is there a way to warn someone, Aang at least?” Steven hoped. He knew that Roku thought any danger was unlikely, but if there was a chance and doing it would help put his mind at ease, Steven was sure that Roku would humour him.

But again, Roku’s smile had been replaced with an apologetic frown. “Aang isn’t at the stage where he can communicate freely with his past lives. I can’t initiate contact with him.”

Steven frowned this time; he had forgot about that in his frustration. “Never mind, Thanks anyway.” Roku had nodded and sent him an apologetic look before the connection ended.

Steven couldn’t help but think that his attempts had been wasted. He knew it wasn’t really wasted, he had learned something after all that unfortunately gave credibility to the fire nation princess’ claims, as much as Roku tried to dissuade that line of thinking.

He was sure that Azula had some knowledge that Roku didn’t, but he wasn’t sure how. It meant, though, that Steven was no closer to helping Aang from afar. Especially given that contact was not an option.

Steven just gazed up at the ceiling of the room. He looked up silently as he lay on his bed. He would have to try and find out the information that Azula actually knew before he could begin to try again, even if it felt useless, passing on any information at all was better than none.

* * *

  
Azula thought she had got him. The information she let slip today was strictly classified, only Azula herself, The Fire Lord, and high-ranking elites of the fire nation knew what Zhao had told them. Letting part of the valuable information slip could have been detrimental, but Azula deemed it expendable enough that she could use it as bait, it was only Zhao’s plan after all.

However, Azula was disappointed. After seeing Steven getting uneasy after she let her ‘news’ slip, she was sure she could find something that proved some form of connection, preferably the Avatar. Steven had been so eager to leave and end his shift and get back to his room, but to do what, that was the question.

She had secretly tailed him back to his room only to find that what he did when he entered the room was get on the bed and sleep. Azula was dumbfounded, She had hoped at the very least that he was going to start writing something, a letter perhaps, to warn someone of what he had learned, even if there was no way to send it. But instead she found him going to sleep.

It just made no sense to Azula, getting nervous, eager to leave, only to have a nap. Unless there was something going on that she didn’t really understand… she couldn’t be sure. What she was sure of, was that, if there was no use for it, she wouldn’t be ‘letting slip’ any more information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, 
> 
> So I had Roku be a bit naive in this, In the show he wasn't aware of the location of Tui and La, and I kinda thought that the possibility of 2 great spirits being in the normal plain of existence would not occur to him as he and Steven are dealing with incomplete information. I just hope it makes sense for anyone wondering.
> 
> Also good news, bad news, Good news is that I have a Job :D I start on the 4th of Jan, potential bad news is that I might have less time to write, but I promise you all I will still finish this fic :D 
> 
> As always If you spot any errors, I am happy to fix them, Thankyou for reading.
> 
> AN/Edit, 28/02/21 Hello, I wanted to say I have made an edit on this chapter, I missed a line of dialogue in S1E20  
> Roku: They crossed over to the mortal world in the beginning, when I was watching the series and making notes, I put, "Roku doesn't know where they are" but that wasn't completely correct, so I changed the chapter slightly but pretty much ends the same, with slightly different context.


	16. Gossip and Indifference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunate news has swept over the Fire nation palace, some take it worse than others.

Zuko was dead. The news had seemed to come in like an explosion and the residue was the gossip around the fire nation palace. One would have had to have been living under a rock for one not to hear the news of the late prince. Not a single person in the fire nation had not heard the news by now. As shocking as it was though, there were always at least two spots within the palace that were free of its gossip.

The first was the fire nation throne room. After the initial impact and relevance of the news had died down in the room, all participants looked to one man to gauge a reaction. Some would have said he silently mourned the loss of his son; others would have said that he had he was glad at the loss of the banished prince. Those who knew him best though, knew that his reaction was total and complete disinterest.

As far as Fire Lord Ozai was concerned, his son had died when he was banished from the nation, the death only being rectified at acquiring a treasure lost to time, the only difference now was that this death was a certainty.

The second place was anywhere around the Fire Princess herself. It was not that they thought she would mourn. Its not that they thought she would get angry. Its not that they thought she would dance and celebrate even though that would be entirely out of character for her. It’s because of the volatile nature of the princess and the impact of the news, that no one said anything.

Truthfully none of those would be her reaction, in fact she felt a bit insulted that any talk of it would die down. Everyone quieting down, to her, felt like she was being treated like porcelain, something precious that needed sheltering.

If they had bothered to think about it properly and actually gauge her reaction, it was the same as her father’s, indifference. Would she had rather had her brother around? Probably, he was fun to tease after all. Was him finally out of the picture a good thing? She could say yes, finally the better sibling would get the throne with no way of it being because of who was born first or gender, if they were still reasons. Would she miss him? Maybe. But would she miss his wussy nature. No. Was all that enough to make her feel anything? 

In her head it all came down to it being a net neutral, bad and good pretty much cancelling each other out. She really didn’t care either way, but if a person had to metaphorically twist her arm and make her choose to feel something for his death, she probably would have rather he be alive. She was isolated enough as it was. Only having a select few she could even fondly interact with, and the jury was out on the most recent addition if interactions were fond or not.

Speaking of which, she glanced at him. Her inner thoughts had drawn to a close. Steven had seemed to take the news more harshly than she did. He had an unblinking gaze with shock plastered all over it. Azula was baffled honestly, he had barely even met the late teen and Steven cared enough to go white as a sheet.

It surprised her the more she thought about it, ages ago when he gave what could be passed off as advice, she assumed that he had known loss. If someone had came after his life so many times as he had let on enough, then why was he not dealing well with this?

Even if Steven had been hidden away all his life, surely the world war that was going on must have reached him somehow, and he had to have had some form of reality check. It was the way of the world at this point. She even knew this fact way back when her cousin had passed. She probably knew it even before then as she remembered being indifferent to that too.

Well at least he was quiet, she could use this time to relax. Ever since she had made the risk of letting a bit of information go, he had not so subtly tried to converse more information out of her. But his attempts had been lacking when it became clear that Azula was not going to give anymore away if it meant nothing gained for her. She was only too glad when the recent news had stopped him asking for good.

She looked over to him again, thought for a bit then smirked. Sure, the quiet was nice, but relaxing was boring and as such, decided to amuse herself by deciding to talk about the news. “I assume you heard the news.”

She noticed it took a moment for him to register before turning his face towards her, he simply frowned sympathetically and nodded.

Azula could have used without the sympathy he gave her, but she continued. “Did you hear about who did it?” She gazed patiently at him as she waited for his response.

Steven thought for a moment, seeming to check his memories if he in fact had any information, but it was over quickly when he replied, “I didn’t, actually.”

“Pirates,” she decided to only lead with the single word. He looked at her with shock and curiosity, and sensing this, she let more details slip, “As soon as the crew left him, his ship got ambushed and blown up.” She held back smirking further, “useless pirates actually, all the valuables had gone by then, so the action was practically useless.”

Steven frowned at that; it was clear that the implication was that the late prince’s life was not ‘valuable’ as Azula put it. Steven turned back, to where he was gazing originally and sighed regretfully as he kept his expression.

Azula was surprised at this, she expected more bite, more naïve righteousness about morals, trying to change her mind at least. She simply shrugged. It was clear he wasn’t in the mood now. she would try again when it got a more interesting response.

* * *

It was a while later when she eventually decided to try again, the look on his face had died down a bit since the earlier conversation. It was less of a blank shock and now more of a mild regret, still probably thinking about it even now.

“Let me guess,” Azula spoke suddenly causing Steven to stop whatever thought he had to look over to her, “still thinking about little Zuzu aren’t you?” The reaction was immediate, he frowned again, but he did grace her with a nod as a reply.

“Don’t tell me you had met him in the two years he was banished and became besties” Azula asked again, but as rhetorically as the sarcasm used in the last word.

Instead of being bated in however, Steven replied politely, albeit a little stiffly. “No, the first time I met him was at the island.”

‘Obviously’ Azula mentally chastised, but continued on with what was the real point of her questioning. “Then why are you so hung up on it?” She asked sharply.

Steven looked at her with disdain, “Why aren’t you hung up about it?” he asked right back, his eyes conveying his confusion and frustration, “It’s like you don’t even care at all.”

“Because I don’t,” Azula said flatly.

“You don’t care about your own brother’s death?” Steven tested her phasing against her.

“No, I don’t,” Azula answered similarly, smugly smirking at him when that blunt of a question didn’t change her answer like she assumed he thought it would.

“What?” Steven let out weakly in response.

“Oh you heard me right. I. Don’t. Care. I’m honestly surprised you do, given you only met him once.” She offhandedly added at the end as she sighed. As much as she was curious, it was exhausting seeing him care so much.

“Of course I do, It’s a life.” Steven countered weakly again, probably still in shock at what had just been said to him.

… Was he really that naïve? She knew he had an element of naïveté but didn’t consider it would be this severe. Did she give him too much credit in their ages ago conversation? “Wake up,” She replied harshly, “What is happening currently? What is happening tomorrow?” She waited for the recognition to flash in his eyes, “Do you really think no lives are lost in the war? Or have you just been, what you would call, lucky?”

Azula continued, “I find it incredibly hard to believe that given the state of the world, given the state of your situation you let slip a while back, that you have not been.” Azula couldn’t tell when her tone went from harsh to mocking, but the seeming embarrassment on Steven’s face was enough to tell her it wasn’t just as she ended it.

She expected denial, she expected some tragic tale about one death that really got to him that made him act this way, she expected at least anything, but nothing. He just stared at her biting his words back. 

She could have laughed, was he serious? So from what she could gather, he has had attempts on his life, but no one else around him had actually died? It was a strange scenario to say the least but again, it is what one would call lucky.

Steven was silent, which to Azula only solidified her speculation as confirmation, so she continued. “I don’t believe it,” She laughed out, “You haven’t had loss, have you?” she smirked.

Steven finally had something to counter, “Hey, I don’t…” but something caught his throat, Azula assumed that the example he could have used wasn’t as strong as he initially thought and decided against saying it.

Despite the example failing, however, he did eventually find some words to say. “I at least know how to feel,” he shot back. “I know that when some one near to you _dies_ ,” the word caught bitterly as it left his lips, “you should be sad, and be mourning, not like some uncaring robot.”

Azula thought his counter even after a bit of extra thinking time was weak. She didn’t know what ‘robot’ meant, but she knew this instance of the word was an insult, and she would not let him get away with anything today.

“So you lost the argument and decided to resort to insults” Azula spoke spitefully with a smirk, this was more than she needed to know she had won this exchange of words. “Now, tell me,” She stood firm and imposing, “does a princess deserve to be called a ‘robot,’” the answer to that was obvious. “I think you should practice your apology skills, don’t you? They still need some work after all.”

Steven frowned but sighed, letting any frustration leave before he bowed his head, “I am sorry, Princess, for calling you a metallic object.”

Suddenly, he jumped back to avoid the sudden fireball sent his way, “Didn’t like it, try again,” Azula smirked.

Steven readied himself bowing again, “I am sorry for insulting your grace, Princess.” He stood still.

“Better, you can go,” Azula smirked. Steven sighed and bowed leaving Azula alone now. He slowly made his way to the door and exited quietly without another word.

“Well, that was fun,” she said to no one this time. She finally got the interesting reaction she was after, and to top it off, she got to see a surprised face at a rare stray fire blast, for her at least. Breaking his pride first, shooting it, and getting him to repeat his apology was an ending better than she thought it would be.

She reflected back on the conversation with a slight bit of frustration. What gave him the right to talk about loss when he hadn’t actually experienced any, it insulted her. At least the conversation gave her a bit of entertainment before tomorrows big event far away from where she was.

It was ironic actually. It seemed that it took arguing with Steven to bring her any sort of joy at the big gossip of the palace. How else could she get any joy out of it? After all, Zuko was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.  
> Its been about a month since I have posted, whoops. I will try post more often, but I know its not expected (thank you everyone for letting me have a lax schedule) 
> 
> One step closer to Book 2  
> and as always, any narrative, spelling, grammar, or character mistakes, feel free to point it out to me :D I am always looking to improve.


	17. The Spirit world and Pink light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven makes one last attempt to help allies in the north.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,  
> Oof, not posted in a month and I don't have Christmas to blame it on, hope the chapter makes up for it.  
> I am actually proud of this one, It took a while.
> 
> A note before you read however, I had to change my chapter 15 slightly.  
> I had missed something which changed what I thought Roku would say back in that chapter, the context is mostly the same but I wanted to own up to my mistake.  
> There is an edited note if you want to check it out.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

The days leading up to the siege on the north were tense. The death of Zuko only seemed to add to the severity of the situation, even if the death had happened before they got into the north’s territory.

Plans were checked and double checked, but they were fine of course; Zhao, being the one leading the attack, was calculating, and would have had the preliminary planning down. Everyone was sure that with the dragon of the west deciding to join the brigade, the man that almost brought down the earth capital, things would be fine from a strategic standpoint.

Still, the halls of the palace were tense, the air of uncertainty spread around from person to person. Some thought it was fool proof, the secret some of them knew guaranteed them victory. Others were skeptical, the newly appointed admiral leading and the failed general who gave up on the conquest working together didn’t seem like a winning combination.

The tenseness only ever built up until the day of the first attack. There was no word for most of the day. Many of the hall patrol routes diverted to in eye-shot of any potential messengers coming through, and for most of the day there was nothing.

News had eventually come through, however. News of first contact and news of the company stopping for the night was well received when the messages came. It was well received, but still tense.

Stopping for the night meant another 12 hours of waiting, they took solace in the fact that The Avatar working with water tribe members only managed to take out a handful of ships before retreating. This gave many confidences. Others, mainly the higher ups that knew the secret to breaking down the fighting force of the water tribe, were impatient that they were even waiting the night.

Many went to rest as it was clear no progress was going to be made that night. Others stayed awake, not wanting to miss any potential news, as unlikely as it was. One boy stayed awake as the situation was too stressful for him to sleep.

Ever since the mild taunting that Azula gave him many days ago, Steven couldn’t get the information out of his head; the information that killing a spirit is what the plan of action would be that would change the tide of war, and that pun that he mentally made to himself didn’t help his mood as much as he thought it would.

The point still stood that Azula wouldn’t have been that confident of it being certain, unless it was in fact true, and he couldn’t get his mind off of it. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, the news of the late prince had provided his mind a break from thinking about the possible demise of a spirit, but it wasn’t exactly a good distraction. It was either think of someone you were tasked with saving, and failed before you properly met them, or how a force of nature is going to be destroyed to win a world war.

Now, with the battle going on up north, the one on his mind was constantly the latter, he couldn’t help thinking that he himself could help with the situation. He knew something. Roku had tried to console him before, but Steven knew it wasn’t a bluff, and he knew the fire nation had found a way.

He paced back and forth a lot that night, one question in his mind, or rather a decision he had to make, should he contact Roku now. Even if he pressed Roku again about the certainty the fire nation presented and nothing changed, he still wanted to know what was going on. With everyone being tight lipped about the little information that did come though, to ease his conscious, he wanted to see how things were going for Aang in the north.

He gazed out of a small window up at the moon that might just pop out of existence for all he knew, it would have been a contrast, with it being so full and bright. He gazed for a moment longer, and it was that moment longer that had made up his decision for him.

Newfound determination had entered him. He was going to try contact him again with his concerns.

Steven made his way quickly to his bed and tried to sleep. He wasn’t sure he would be able to at first, with all the stress that seemed to be building up for the day, he couldn’t in the first place. The difference now was he was determined to sleep, he was determined to voice his concerns one last time.

The familiar slight sensation came over him and he was sure he made the connection to the spirit world. He opened his eyes. “Er… what?” the sensation was familiar alright, but it wasn’t what he was used to seeing. Usually his visits with Roku had a backdrop with clouds, usually seeming to be standing on some sort of beige fog, but how he was in a beige forest.

He didn’t have a moment to think as he heard a yell of surprise above him, someone was falling down. Steven reacted faster than he could think and managed to catch the falling person as he fell down.

Landing in Stevens arms, the person let go of whatever they had in their hands and it subsequently floated off, Steven could only look at the person before him, “Aang?” he questioned in surprise.

Stevens voice took a moment to register as Aang was about to call out to the thing he was trying to catch before he turned his head to his catcher, “…Steven?” the disbelief in his voice was clear, “What are you doing here?”

Steven immediately put down the twelve-year-old. He opened his mouth for an explanation. He didn’t get chance to form his first word however as a commotion was present in the water. The waters rippled and changed shade as it caught both of the boys’ attention. A figure formed in the water to speak to both of them.

“Hello, Aang, Steven,” The figure calmly announced after a few seconds of forming properly.

“Roku?” both Aang and Steven offered in surprise, Steven wasn’t sure what Aang was here for, but while Steven was here to see Roku himself, it surprised him that he appeared in this way as opposed to it being in the usual spot.

“Steven is here to see me, Aang,” Roku offered as an explanation for what Steven had said moments earlier. With a nod from Steven, directly mostly at Roku for confirmation, but a look in his eyes as he nodded was enough to make Roku make another educated guess, and slight correction, “He has come to warn me, and you, Aang, as I’m sure it’s about our last conversation.” 

Before Aang could ask, Steven provided the answer, “I know you said it’s unlikely, but I’m certain they have found them.” He earnestly addressed Roku. Roku frowned in concern at this.

“What do you mean? Who found who?” Aang asked eventually. The concern on the young boys face matched Roku’s at this point.

Steven was glad Aang was here actually, as the reason he wanted to warn Roku, was that he could help Aang, so Steven was more than happy to voice his concern a second time. “I think the fire nation knows where the moon and ocean spirits are and are going to kill the moon spirit,” he burst out not wanting to waste another moment.

“What? Is it possible to kill a spirit?” Aang turned to Roku to clarify this.

“Normally no, but Tui and La have been in the mortal world for such a long time that they will be harmed greatly at an attempt”

“This is all wrong.” Aang said woefully, “I came here to actually ask that spirit for help.”

“Well, there isn’t much time, then.” Roku said, guiding the next course of action, “The location of the spirit needs to be known either in warning, or in assistance, and there is only one spirit I know of that is aware of the location of such ancient spirits.”

“What are we waiting for, lets go and get its help” Steven spoke excitedly in relief, he had been stressing about this for days and let his emotions get the better of him at the notion.

“It won’t be that easy,” Roku spoke, cutting Stevens relief short, “The spirit’s name is Koh, and he is a dangerous spirit; They call him ‘the face stealer’” at the mention of the title, Stevens lips went thin and Aang’s mouth hung open in fear. “When you speak with him, you must be very careful to show no emotion at all, not the slightest expression, or he will steal your face.” Steven winced while Aang opted for a face that seemed to cross over fear and surprise.

In a moment though, Aang did the opposite and his expression seemed to vanish, the only slight expression someone could claim was the slightly raised eyebrows, still needing to recover from the shock.

Steven was impressed, he was still in the middle of his reaction while Aang had already gotten his under control.

Roku nodded proudly at this and smiled slightly trying to part a bit of courage onto the boy.

Roku continued “I can take you as far as before the entrance, but you will have to go in alone.”

* * *

Azula wasn’t a patient woman, she internally scolded the northern army for not sending updates more frequently. So when she found a soldier missing from the line up for her morning routine she wasn’t having any of it.

Of all of the things to do on today of all days, not showing up was what many would call a bad move, especially if it put you at odds with the fire nation princess. She was going to use Steven as an example today, of what not to do. She sent one of her maidservants to fetch him and bring him to the training ground, in the meantime she went about her training as usual. Until it got interrupted.

The same maid had returned, without the boy in question. Azula’s brows furrowed. It was clear from the uncertain expression Azula saw that it wasn’t the maid’s fault, but she had failed the task given to her.

“Why have you come back empty handed,” Azula spoke evenly in her tone, but everyone knew there was threatening undertones.

“I-I-… I don’t know how to explain it, he just won’t wake.” She stuttered out.

“You mean to tell me that you struggle to explain that he slept in on his duties. That’s your excuse?” Azula’s frown deepened. “Care to tell me why you didn’t use force to bring him here.”

The request normally would be unreasonable, a maidservant using force against a soldier, there was a clear difference in strength from the titles alone, but this was Azula giving the order, and she was feeling impatient today, so it was lucky when the maid replied. “I tried.” She squeaked out.

Azula’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, there was clearly more, but of course it was up to her to prompt it out of the maid. “And?”

“He glowed when I approached him,” The maid replied, gaining some confidence at not immediately being dismissed.

“Interesting,” Azula said evenly again, but a spark of motivation in her eye. She turned to the rest of the guards in the training area, “Everyone is dismissed.”

Azula waited until everyone had left before addressing the maid again. “Take me to him, I want to see for myself.” Azula commanded before they both left the grounds themselves.

There was no rush, they went at a leisurely pace that Azula set, but Azula couldn’t deny she was eager to see this glowing. It probably was small, but it was another piece of the evidence into what her personal soldier actually was.

After a while of walking in silence, they had arrived. Azula looked over at him resting, then to the maid, silently getting her to demonstrate with only a look. The maid nodded and approached with a handout like she must have done the first time and there it was. Pink glow gradually starting up his natural skin tone, only seeming to get brighter as the hand got closer. Then she rescinded the hand and the glow seemed to dim down when she was sufficiently out of range.

Interesting. Azula did something similar, she got closer by stepping towards him. There it was again, the glow, getting brighter as she got closer. She stepped back, and it stopped. There was some experimentation to be done.

Azula mused to herself for a moment, before dismissing the maid. It was now just her and the occasional glowing male before her.

Azula stepped forward again, how close could she get before something else happened. She reached her hand out and moved it forward to touch him on the forehead with a single finger. The closer she got the more the bed he was on seemed to swallow him up, almost as if he was getting heavier. She rescinded before she got too close and tried for similar results touching his chest. It was similar results, the bed indenting as she got closer, but when she got too close, a pink rhombus blocked her hands journey.

She blinked, stared for a moment, and pushed against it; it stopped her path with utmost resistance. She backed away slightly and moved her hand in the direction of his stomach and the pink shape seemed to come earlier this time in her hands path. Two hands, two pink polygons to stop her getting closer to his chest.

It was getting more interesting, but it still told her nothing about what he is. She gazed at the pink shapes, exactly like the shield he had produced when he first met her, only this time they were diamond shaped.

She mused along this train of thought before stopping, diamond shaped… pink diamond shaped things. Pink diamond. In his ages ago rant, he had let that precious rock, slip. “Pink diamond” she said out loud for her thought’s sake, there was clearly a link here.

* * *

The party of three had made their way through the spirit world as fast as they could. It was by no means quick, but they got there eventually. Roku had since retreated back into Aang’s reflection as Aang was to face this next bit alone.

“Are you sure about this?” Steven asked hesitantly as the pair of them approached the dead looking tree on a solitary island.

“I have to, it’s my responsibility,” Aang replied frowning slightly, in both dread and determination. Steven knew this, it felt silly to ask in the first place, but the idea of a ‘face stealer’ didn’t fill him with the best confidence, no matter who was going in there.

“I can go in, instead?” Steven hesitantly suggested, he by no means wanted to, but he would rather go in place of the young boy, if things go wrong, he might even be able to heal his face, he had healed stranger things.

Aang, however, turned to face him showing no expression in the slightest, held the gaze and smiled reassuringly, “I can do this, I think I have better control over my expression.” Aang chuckled, with Steven reluctantly agreeing. “Besides, it’s my responsibility,” he repeated, as if to prove to Steven that he was the one that should be going in, the reason of ‘because I’m the Avatar’ didn’t need to be said.

“Ok,” Steven sighed in reluctant acceptance, “I will wait out here for you, call me if it goes wrong.” Aang smiled and nodded, entering the cave under the trunk of the tree silently. It was weird for Steven, he was not used to others doing something dangerous when he could have spared them form it, it was something he worked on in therapy, but weird now that it was put into practice. He mentally berated himself however, half because he still felt like he should be going in his stead, half because he hadn’t really learned anything; with the only thing stopping him being a lack of jurisdiction on this world and spirits.

He didn’t have to wait too long; it felt far longer than it actually was, however. It was the stress of the uncertainty of the situation coupled with not really being able to do anything about it. It was exactly how he was before he went to sleep, the difference this time being that time seemed go slow than go by fast.

It was a fresh breath of relief when, finally, Aang stepped out of the cave, his face still on his head. Steven looked at Aang hopefully. Aang smiled but sighed “it seems obvious now, looking back, it’s the koi fish!” he exclaimed, Steven gave a blank expression, “it doesn’t matter, I know where they are, and I know how to help them.”

Steven smiled, need not asking any further, “Good enough for me, lets get you back.” Aang nodded in reply with his smile turning to a look of determination.

Their attention turned to a silhouette forming on the ground; Roku appeared in Aang’s shadow again, “I have managed to find a friend to help guide you back.” The silhouette changed suddenly into a panda causing Steven to flinch in confusion while Aang turned around with a wide smile.

“Hai Bai” Aang exclaimed suddenly; Steven turned around to see that the panda wasn’t a shadow but a reflection of something that appeared out of nowhere. Steven smiled in amazed confusion, it was strange how that had even happened, a reflection-shadow of a past life turning into a panda’s literal reflection as it had teleported behind them.

After getting on the friendly bear, they began the journey back to where Aang needed to go.

For the most part the journey was the same back, a party of three with the only difference being that Roku was exchanged for another spirit. They passed the same trees they had done what seemed to be moments prior. Steven looked at the boy in front of him on the panda, his mind not on the journey but on what had just happened. “How was it?” he asked suddenly.

“What do you mean?” Aang replied confused, looking back to hold conversation.

“How was, you know, the ‘face stealer’?” Steven asked with a bated breath.

Aang let out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he was holding in. He looked at Steven with a reassuring smile, “better and worse than I thought,” He answered honestly.

The answer didn’t help his piece of mind, but at least they never had to do that again. “At least you are ok now.” Steven replied before leaning back slightly in relaxation while they rode on the panda.

A few more moments passed before another conversation topic was brought up, but by Aang this time. “Who are you anyway?” Aang asked bluntly but trying to be polite in his tone.

His first reaction was to say his name, but upon second thought, he realised the implications of the question, “I had assumed Roku told you.” Steven said first, trying to prompt Aang to say what he did know to see how much he had to explain.

“He didn’t say much.” Aang replied first, “It was more a talk on saving the end of the world by summer,” Aang spoke more solemnly at that, but smiled and cheered up a moment later, “He did say you were a friend though, and that we could trust you.”

“I appreciate the trust,” Steven smiled back, “Ok so the short version is that I am helping Roku out on a personal matter. I have a bit of a reputation where I am from for redeeming people, so I’m helping out with that.”

“Is that why you were with… Azula?” Aang finally asked after a moment of recollection. “You are trying to change her to change the fire nation?” he asked hopefully.

“Sort of,” Steven sighed, “I used to be a lot better at it, and She is a tough nut to crack.” Steven looked back to Aang, “I’m afraid that the best bet we have of ending this war is you still,” Steven gave a concerned expression, “I’m sorry, I know it’s still a lot of pressure. I might be able to help Azula, but not the fire nation before the end of the summer.”

Aang sighed, “I know, but I’m just a kid. I have barely started water bending and I have to master two more elements this year. Sometimes I feel like I won’t be able to stop this war.”

Steven empathetically put his hand on Aang’s shoulder. “You have Roku, as well as the two friends I met, Sokka and Katara was it? You won’t be doing it alone, you have help. If I do my job right, you will have two more by your side.” He slightly doubted his last point, but made it known anyway as it was for Aang’s conscious.

“That kind of helps actually,” Aang smiled but something holding him back from a complete smile, Steven wondered how much it actually did help him.

The rest of the journey was made in a somber silence. The mood no longer felt right for any more small talk that could be said between them, and the dread of what Aang had to do that day only got bigger as Aang got closer back to the spirit gate.

Saving the whole of water bending, and then moving on to save the world. It pained Steven when he reminded himself that Aang was only twelve. Katara and Sokka can’t have been much older and it pained him to think about that and his own experiences. He only hoped that they could get through this time in their lives better than he could.

Steven only spoke next when it was clear that their journey was almost over. “I’m sorry I can’t be more help.” There was clear regret in his voice as Aang turned around to look at him, “I know how stressful these things can be especially when you are young.”

Steven gained a reassuring smile on his face, “But you can do it, I have every bit of faith that you can, besides, kids are more capable that you think.” Steven paused for a moment of suspense, seeing that Aang was interested in what he had to say next, “I once was in your position, stopping a war, and I can tell you any war was all resolved before my fifteenth birthday.” He smiled “You can do it.”

A spark was lit in Aang’s eyes and he replied with a nod and a smile. Steven knew that its exactly what he needed to hear, he could tell there were questions, but they were left unsaid as they approached the spirit gate.

“Good luck, not that you will need it,” Steven added before he left.

“Thank you, the moon will be safe in no time.” Aang smiled and waved as he walked into the arc way, “Now how do I get back?” he asked mostly to himself as he wandered around the structure.

Hai Bai, as if on queue, blew a light out of his mouth to send him back, a white light with a slight blue hue surrounded Aang and suddenly he was gone. Steven smiled as he saw Aang disappear and looked to Hai Bai as the panda gestured towards the arc.

“Thank you, but I can see myself out,” Steven politely declined as he closed his eyes. Suddenly, he was gone too.

* * *

Azula had spent the rest of the day experimenting with the still body of her guard that never turned up for his post. Some could have said that it was pointless and there were more important things that someone could have been doing. But Azula had an opportunity to learn something about him, and wasn’t going to let it slip, even if there wasn’t many answers to be given.

She had concluded that the barriers seemed to be more focused on protecting his stomach. She might have guessed head or heart but it was the stomach that got the earliest barriers.

She concluded that the barriers happened with everyone that tried. She had asked the maid from earlier to help her with the experiment. The less people that knew, the better, and the maid had already known, so why not use her for this one.

She had found that it wasn’t just people either, the glowing and the pink diamonds appeared when objects were thrown, fire too. It seemed that whatever was happening didn’t discriminate with what came close.

It came to a point when there was one last thing to test, its reaction speed. She had tried various velocities when throwing objects or fire, but there was one thing she hadn’t tried. Her lightning.

Was this too far? Probably, but was she going to get another opportunity like this again, to test a modified version of his abilities that he kept so secret? No. So she decided to do it.

The results were interesting. She had set up the lightning, and despite being further away to stop the glowing, as soon as she started, he glowed the now familiar pink hue. The only thing left to do at that point was shoot it.

It happened all in an instant, the lightning left her fingertips, the barrier started to form, it was just slow enough in forming that the lightning got past, it got closer to him, it looked like it was about to hit, but another pink structure expanded outwards from him. The lightning was instantly reflected to the wall as the new pink barrier grew outwards more, seeming to be determined to fill the whole room. Azula had just managed to dodge its growth and exit the room as she heard the other furniture getting damaged in its wake.

There was a soft popping sound before a thud. Azula turned around to see that he was now in the middle of the room, but encased in a tight permanent pink barrier this time. Azula smiled and sighed, it looked like her experimentation was over for now.

Azula had entered back into the room and leaned against the wall, the chair and bed being too damaged to sit on. She waited.

It was evening before her waiting paid off. Azula had not her eyes leave the boy, as she leaned against the wall, when suddenly, the shield substance rescinded. A moment later is when Steven opened his eyes.

He noticed something was off immediately, he looked around to where the bed was supposed to be and saw it broken and then swept his eyes around the room before finding Azula.

“Finally decided to wake, I see.” Azula said smugly as she stopped leaning on the wall and stood more up right.

“How long was I out?” Steven asked slowly. It was clear he had another question on his mind, namely the one about what happened here, Azula presumed, but opted for responding to her first before asking.

“Probably just short of a full day.” Azula responded curtly “You missed your shifts.” She added, sternly.

“I’m really sorry about that.” He apologized looking around the room again before changing the topic of conversation, “What happened here?”

“There were attempts to wake you, this is the result.” Azula answered. It wasn’t exactly a false response, but not entirely true either.

“I have to say, I’m impressed.” Azula continued, gaining a smirk on her expression, “All this damage and you weren’t even trying.”

“I’m sorry,” Steven replied. It was a cross between embarrassment and remorseful, “and sorry again, for missing my post, I didn’t think I was asleep for that long.” He added, giving her a more thought-out apology now that the biggest question to him was answered.

“Well, I think something else is to be desired, don’t you think?” Azula dropping her smirk slightly and focused her gaze.

“I’m sorry, Princess, I won’t miss another session again?” He replied slowly thinking of what she meant.

“I think its about time you explain a few things,” Azula gestured around the room, “this much destruction warrants an explanation.”

Steven apologized for the fifth time in the conversation, “Sorry again, but I don’t know what I did to cause this.”

“Then explain the pink glow, and the pink barriers,” Azula immediately countered and then studied him closely, “The pink diamonds.”

He flinched, at her last words, but Steven regained his composure and thought for a moment, “The barriers are like my shield,” He summoned it to help offer his explanation, “just a lot more personalisable.”

“And the glow?” Azula narrowed her eyes.

“It’s linked to the barriers.” Steven offered, shrugging.

“I see, that will be ….” The reply never got finished. It was interrupted by the moon’s pale blue light morphing into a blood red one. “They have got it.” Azula said instead, gazing at the new colour.

“What?!” Steven said in surprise, casting his gaze also into the night sky, he must have moved too quick however as he winced in pain and clutched his head.

“Its exactly as I said, the fire nation has the moon spirit in their clutches.” Azula smirked, “Water bending is finished”

Steven didn’t reply, he could only gaze in horror at the sight.

“Why so horrified” Azula smirked, identifying the emotion immediately, this is a great first step for the rest of the war.

“I can’t help but think this is bad for everybody,” Steven confessed, “I never thought it was a good idea.”

“That much was clear.” Azula replied, choosing to ignore his speculation. “Your face is quite telling, you know.”

“I had been made aware recently, actually,” Steven replied. Azula couldn’t decide if that was an attempt at making light of the situation slightly, or just informing her.

They two went back to gazing at the moon, in silence now. Azula saw he made no attempt to clear up his sad expression. Azula shrugged, it wasn’t her problem what he thought, the moon was going to die anyway and there was nothing they could do about it regardless.

For a brief moment, the colour changed back to normal, earning a confusion frown form Azula and a hopeful smile from Steven, only before fading entirely this time, as quickly as it happened their expressions reversed almost, a vindictive smile on Azula with Steven’s being plastered with a hopeless frown. “The spirits dead.” Azula spoke, as Steven stayed silent, the colour seemed to vanish from everything.

The only bits of colour left were the occasional torches littered around outside. Azula had missed it at first, the most obvious colour being from fire sources outside, but a more perceptive glance made another bit of colour clear. Steven’s stomach.

It was faint, it was really faint, but there was just the slight pink coming from under his shirt. It was circular, where his navel would be, about the size of a fist. She daren’t ask him about it, Azula knew he would only try to hide it or deny its existence, but it was a subtle piece of the puzzle to review upon later.

He hadn’t noticed himself, which allowed her a few more glances to make sure what she was seeing wasn’t some trick of her vision. It was always there when she looked, it was real.

“Well, I will take my leave,” Azula announced suddenly, she would leave Steven to his emotions about the missing moon. She would rather celebrate privately; the war had shifted in their favour this day.

“Get some sleep,” she commanded as she left, “make sure you promptly arrive tomorrow.”

“Yes, Princess,” Steven replied. Not hiding his listless tone, probably still distraught about what they had just witnessed.

Azula left after she heard the reply, things were looking up for the fire nation. Two nations down, one to go, the earth kingdom. It would be their hardest challenge yet, but she knew her nation would pull through and win.

Her inward celebrations were cut short when against all odds, the moon returned up in the night sky. Azula gritted her teeth in frustration, useless Zhao. Of course he couldn’t even do this right. If it were her, she would have completed the task at hand properly. She could only hope that an opportunity arose for her to get involved. It was maybe about time that she herself tagged into the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry once again about the edit business, I hope it didn't ruin the experience 
> 
> If you are wondering partly why the chapter is late, its kinda the reason, so I wanted to edit and own up to said edit so I could be completely happy with the story.  
> that plus its my longest chapter actually, so feel free to point out any errors, I'm sure ones will have been missed by me and my beta reader. 
> 
> Now its the end of book One, (practically) We will head onto book 2, which has a lot more Azula, which has a lot more for me to work off and for me to use, so hopefully (no promises) chapters might be able to come out quicker, quicker than a month at a time anyway. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and Thank you for reading.


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